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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



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KENT'S 



ew Commentary: 



MANUAL FOR YOUNG MEN. 



J* / 



BY C: H. KENT. 



DAVENPORT, IOWA: 

Published by the Author. 

1880. 



9h 






Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1880, by Charles H. Kent, in the office 
of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C. 



Gazette Printing House, 
davenport. 




(Presented to 



(By 




" Lives of all great men remind us, 
We can make our lives sublime, 
And, departing, leave behind us 
Footprints on the sands of time; — 

" Footprints, that perhaps another, 
Sailing o'er life's solemn main, 
A forlorn and shipwrecked, brother 
Seeing, shall take heart again.' 11 

— Longfellow. 



DEDICATION. 

TO THE 

YOUNG MEN OF AMERICA, 

with the kindest regards for their welfare, and a hope 

that none who may read shall fail of reaching 

the highest round of usefulness, and 

of enjoying to their fullest 

capacity 

( The Fruits of a Beautiful Life, 

this volume is most respectfully dedicated by 

THE AUTHOR, 



" The mother sending forth her child 
To meet with cares and strife, 
Breathes through her tears her doubts and fears 

For the loved one's future life. 
No cold c adieu,' no 'farewell 1 lives 

Within her clioking sigh ; 
But the deepest sob of anguish gives, 
' God bless thee, boy ! —good bye!' " 

—Eliza Cook. 



In the Interest of 

The Fathers and Mothers of the Young Men of America, 

" Kent's New Commentary " 

is PUBLISHED, 

WITH THE SINCERE HOPE AND EARNEST PRAYER OF THE AUTHOR, 

THAT IT MAY PROVE INSTRUMENTAL IN SAYING SOME 

DARLING BOY FROM RUIN, SOME HOME 

FROM SORROW. 

THAT SUCH MAY BE ITS MISSION, IT IS MOST AFFECTIONATELY COM- 
MENDED TO THEIR FAVORABLE CONSIDERATION. 



WHERE IS MY BOY TO-NIGHT f 

BY REV. KOBERT LOWKY. 

Where is my wancTring boy to-night, 

The boy of my tencTrest care, 
The boy that was once my joy and light, 
The child of my love and prayer ? 
where is my boy to-night? 

where is my boy to-night ? 
My heart o'erflows, for I love him he knows ; 
O where is my boy to-night? 

Once he was pure as morning dew, 

As he knelt at his mother's knee ; 
No face was so bright, no heart more true, 

And none was so sweet as he. 

O could I see you now, my boy, 

As fair as in olden time, 
When prattle and smile made home a joy, 

And life was a merry chime ! 

Go for my wandMng boy to-night ; 

Go, search for him where you will ; 
But bring him to me with all his blight, 

And tell him I love him still. 



" When we are out of sympathy with the young, then I think our work in this 

world is over! That is a sign that the earth has begun to wither— and that is a 

dreadful kind of old age. 11 

— George MacDonald. 

" I desire to find in books not what may be blamed, but what may be praised, 
and that from which I may learn something. This course is not exactly in fash- 
ion; but it is the most useful. Nevertheless, though there are few books or per- 
sons in whom I cannot find something of use to me, I know how to make a differ- 
ence in granting them my confidence. 11 

—Godfrey Wilhelm von Leibnitz. 



SMALL BEGINNINGS. 

BY CHAELES MACKAY. 

A traveller through a dusty road strewed acorns on the lea; 

And one took root and sprouted up, and grew into a tree. 

Love sought its shade, at evening time, to breathe its early vows ; 

And age was pleased, in heats of noon, to bask beneath its boughs; 

The dormouse loved its dangling twigs, the birds sweet music bore ; 

It stood a glory in its place, a blessing evermore. 

A little spring had lost its way amid the grass and fern, 

A passing stranger scooped a well, where weary men might turn; 

He walled it in, and hung with care a ladle at the brink; 

He thought not of the deed he did, but judged that toil might drink. 

He passed again, and lo ! the well, by summers never dried, 

Had cooled ten thousand parching tongues, and saved a life beside. 

A dreamer dropped a random thought; 't was old, and yet 1 was new; 

A simple fancy of the brain, but strong in being true. 

It shone upon a genial mind, andlo! its light became 

A lamp of life, a beacon ray, a monitory flame. 

The thought was small ; its issue great ; a watch-flre on the hill ; 

It sheds its radiance far adown, and cheers the valley still! 

A nameless man, amid a crowd that thronged the daily mart, 
Let fall a word of Hope and Love, unstudied, from the heart; 
A whisper on the tumult thrown,— a transitory breath, — 
It raised a brother from the dust; it saved a soul from death. 
O germ! O fount! O word of love! O thought at random cast! 
Ye were but little at the first, but mighty at the last. 



The inspiration of a thought, the magic of a word — how momentous. 



PREFACE. 



An author is supposed to have an object in view when he writes a 
book; certainly he should have some purpose, though it may be 
difficult for his readers to discern what it is. 

We must confess that for years we have had a desire to write a 
book, and our desire is now gratified. We selected the name, 
"Kent's New Commentary," because we thought it the most sug- 
gestive, and as comprehensive as any we could hit upon. We 
believe that commentaries, as a rule, treat upon various and sundry 
subjects, and in this particular we judge the reader will be satisfied 
with the number we have introduced. They are not all classified 
under the most appropriate headings, for to tell the truth, we ran 
short of headings, and we ask pardon for the seeming omission. 

Our arrangement of topics is novel and original with us, and we 
are confident our readers will heartily endorse our ideas in that 
respect. If it should appear that we have been guilty of plagiar- 
ism, we shall plead that we have committed the sin without feeling 
any of the pangs of a guilty conscience, and are willing to be for- 
given therefor. As to the many inelegant expressions that may be 
found, we are keenly sensitive thereto, and that we have murdered 
good old " Lindley Murray" in cold blood over and over again, we 
are free to confess, and we expect that critics and book reviewers, 
if they shall condescend to notice our bantling, will give us a 
" hazing" that would satisfy a " West-Pointer," or any other man. 
We shall be most seriously disappointed should we not enjoy such 
a delightful treat. But if they do " go" for us, we trust they will 
not fail to satisfy their thirst "for blood" to the fullest extent. 
With this free and open confession, we commit our work to the 
tender mercies of our executioners, praying that if they have a drop 
of the " milk of human kindness" left over, they will not let it 
spoil on their hands. 

We claim no special gift or talent for "book-making," nor have 
we had any special revelation, and chosen this method of com- 
municating its mysteries to the world. We do not claim a single 
new idea. How could we do so, when the wisest man of all the ages 
wrote, " There is nothing new under the sun," and " of making 



xii PREFACE. 

many books there is no end." This certainly was prophetic. It 
certainly would be an exhibition of consummate arrogance in us to 
assume that we possessed wisdom superior to that of Solomon. His 
wise sayings are incomparable, and will go down to the end of time 
as the best commentary ever written on the various phases of human 
life. He drank at every fountain, and was well able to judge which 
were the right ones to quench the insatiable thirst of the human 
soul. Human nature is the same to-day that it was then. The same 
influences that produced a Joseph and a Daniel, an Absalom and 
a Haman, bring out the same characters to-day. Like influences 
produce like results. Children are not born with full developed 
characters. That they inherit traits from their parents is self-evident. 
It is the training and influences woven into the thread of every-day 
life, that fixes the character to a very great extent. It was the kiss 
of a mother that made Benjamin West the great painter he after, 
wards became. When the mother of James Harper said to her six- 
teen year old boy, as he was about leaving his home to seek his 
fortune, "James you've got good blood in you ; do not disgrace it," 
the corner-stone of the great house of Harper Brothers, of Franklin 
Square, New York was laid plumb. 

We trust that the purpose of our work will be discoverable with- 
out severe mental effort. There are so many young men in every 
community who have no worthy object to strive for; living simply 
for to-day ; spending all their earnings for the gratification of their 
baser natures; developing the lowest propensities; devoid of all 
aspirations for a higher and better manhood; that we feel con- 
strained to contribute whatever we may to their elevation. If what 
we have written in these pages shall have an influence for good 
with the youth of the country, our object will have been accom- 
plished. To make it instrumental for the greatest good, however, 
much depends upon the efforts that parents will make in addition 
thereto. 

With this brief Preface, we lay down our pen with the sincere 
hope that our labors may, in some measure, be rewarded, by accom- 
plishing some good wherever our little book goes. If some path- 
ways are made brighter, and every home it enters made happier, we 
shall be more than satisfied. 

THE AUTHOR. 

Park Place, Davenport, Iowa, 1880. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE. 

PRELUDE, lr 

A Boy Lost, 17 

Must Have a Guide, 20 

THE MISSING HOST, .......... 22 

"Missing, My Son! 1 '— "Ten Thousand Dollars Reward,"" - 22 

The New Hampshire Boy, 23 

Charlie Ross, - - 25 

Prof. LieVs Boy, - 25 

Why Boys are Stolen, 26 

THE SCHEMES OF SWINDLERS, ......'. 27 

The Minister's Son, 27 

The Clergyman from Illinois, 27 

Sharp Men are Bitten, 28 

SOWING AND REAPING, ......... 30 

Patiently Waiting, 30 

Stick to Your Business, 31 

Don't Cut the Corners, - 31 

Laying the Foundation, 31 

The Fall of the Pemberton Mill, ------- 32 

The Davenport Bridge, •- 32 

Character Building, 33 

Admiral Farragut at Ten Years of Age, ------ 34 

FORTUNE, --------- 36 

What to Do, ----- 37 

Fortune Telling, - 38 

The Astrologers, - 38 

The "Spirits, ,, - -----..--- 40 

The Gypsies, - - 41 

The Fortune Teller, - 42 

READING FICTION, 43 

Dime Novels, - - 44 

What to Read, 46 

How the Man Went to the Circus, - 47 

Improving Literature, --------- 48 

What Some Boys Read, - - 48 

Good Books to Read, - - - - 5* 



xiv CONTENTS. 

PAGE, 

HEALTH, 53 

Good Living, - - 54 

Cleanliness, - -- 54 

The Best Medicine, - - - - - - - - - - 55 

Beware of the Doctors, - - 57 

The Connecticut Doctor's Remedy, 59 

Invalid's Retreat, 60 

Getting Up in the Morning, 60 

How to Develop Lung Power, 61 

Ministers vs. Lawyers, 62 

Advice, - - - ------ 63 

HABITS, .......... 64 

A Horrible Death, - - 64 

Filthy Habits, 65 

Good Manners, ----------- 66 

Dress, 66 

HOW TO DESERVE SUCCESS, ..... . 6 8 

Politeness, - 68 

Two Ways of Doing the Same Thing, 68 

Hotel Clerk, ------------ 69 

Please Your Employers, - 70 

Make Your Employer's Business Yours, - - - - - - 71 

Pacific Mills, Lawrence, Mass., ------- 72 

Put On the Appearance of Business, ------ 73 

Don't be Above your Business, 74 

Choice of Boarding Houses, - - - 75 

HOW TO ENSURE SUCCESS, 76 

Pluck, - - - 76 

A Sermon in a Paragraph, --------- 77 

Waiting for the Elevator, - .- 77 

Burned His Ship— Blew Up the Bridge, 79 

Do Not Procrastinate, !-'---.'--- 79 

THE BATTLE OF LIFE, -80 

The Conflict is Yours, Are You Ready for the Battle ? 80 

Opposition, ---80 

Every One must Take Care of His Own Head, - 81 

General Zachary Taylor, 81 

On the Voyage— Each One His Own Pilot, 82 

What Every Young Man must Have, 83 

Don't Give Up, 83 

Perseverance, 84 

How John Morrissey went to Congress, 85 

Catching the Train, 85 



CONTENTS. xv 

THE BATTLE OF LIFE (continued): page. 

$10,000 Lost! $10,000 Won, 86 

How We Learned to Play the Organ, 86 

Experience must be Paid For, 91 

HOW SOME MEN HAVE SUCCEEDED, 92 

Economy the Secret, 92 

Emma Abbott, 94 

Working to Win, 94 

Keep oat of Debt, 96 

HINDRANCES TO A SUCCESSFUL CAREER, ... 97 

Is Poverty a Hindrance? --------- 97 

Money Well Earned Goes the Farthest, 98 

There are Many Things Mone} r Cannot Buy, 100 

BRAINS AND LABOR. RESULT: SUCCESS, ... 101 

Brain Power, 101 

The Pathfinder, 101 

Want a Turnpike, 102 

Born Great, 103 

After the Bugs and Rocks, 103 

How One Man Won, 105 

MEN WHO STARTED AT THE FOOT OF THE LADDER, - 108 

WHAT BRINGS HAPPINESS, 112 

Happiness vs. Gold, 112 

A Millionaire's Enjoyments, - - 114 

One Wealthy Lady's Experience, ------- 115 

Poor Richard's Advice, 116 

INDULGENCE OF APPETITE, 117 

Ruined by Whisky, 117 

"Wanted- A Boy to Attend Bar," - - 119 

Temperance, 121 

Tobacco as Vile as Whisky, - - - 121 

MAGNITUDE OF TRIFLES, 124 

Trifles— Little Things, --------- 125 

The Chicago Fire, ---------- 125 

A City Destroyed, 126 

Fourth of July Time, 127 

Discovery of Steam, 128 

Electricity— Its Power, 129 



xvi CONTENTS. 






PAGE. 

HAPPY HOMES, 132 

A Wife, 132 

Falling in Love, 133 

Business is Business, 134 

The Modern Belle, 135 

Good House-Keepers are a Rarity, 136 

What Iowa Girls are Taught, 138 

Unhappily Mated, 139 

Some of the Evidences of Conjugal Felicity, .... 141 

Newly Married Couples, 144 

"In Ye Olden Time, 145 

There is Nothing Too Good for Man, 146 

A Song for the " Hearth and Home, v - - - - - - 147 

ACTION! ACTION!! ACTION!!! 148 

Talent and Ambition, - - -148 

Political Honors Unsatisfying, ------- 149 

EXAMPLES OF HEROISM, - - - 150 

Napoleon Bonaparte, - 150 

Florence Nightingale, 152 

Every-Day Heroes, - - 153 

WHAT SHALL I LIVE FOR? 154 

What I Live For, - 154 

DELUSIONS OF THE AGE, 156 

The "Mirage," 156 

Thirst, 157 

Thirsting for Fame, 158 

Thirsting for Honors, - 159 

PART II. — PRACTICAL BUSINESS PRECEPTS, - - iei 

Integrity of Character, 161 

Hon. John Friedley's Motto, 163 

Amos Lawrence's Way of Dealing with Customers, - - - 163 

Hugh Miller, 164 

Maxims of Successful Men, 164 

John McDonogh's Rules, 165 

Book-Keeping, 165 

The Value of a Commercial Education, 166 

Advertise Your Business, 167 

Reserve Power, 170 

LAND SURVEYING IN THE WEST, 172 

System Adopted by the LTnited States Government, - - 172 

Explanation of Diagrams, 174 

Diagrams of Sections, showing Sub-Divisions, - 175 

Abbreviated Descriptions of Sectional Sub-Divisions, - - 176 



PRELUDE. 



A BOY LOST! 

In September, 1878, we spent a few days with a farmer residing 
upon one of the lofty hills of the " Granite State" — the Switzerland 
of America. The location was one of rare beauty ; admirable for 
enjoying a view, wonderfully diversified, charming, sublime. The 
harmonious blending of mountain and valley, lake and forest; the 
cottages of the farmers, nestling among the hills, or high up on 
some lofty eminence ; the gorgeous hues of the maples and other 
deciduous trees richer in color, in the blending, in all the diversity 
of shading imaginable, surpassing the highest conception of the 
best imitations of nature's art-painting; all combined, formed a 
landscape of marvelous attractions — perfectly grand. To our eyes 
unsurpassed ; one that no human skill could transfer to canvas. We 
are inclined to believe nature has not duplicated it. 

Looking southward from our location down across well cultivated 
fields, were the grand old woods, beyond and above which arose a 
high ridge of hills sweeping around on a half circle east and west, 
where they terminated abruptly, leaving gateways wide open, 
through which came to view villages with their church spires, and 
the dwellings of the farmers. 

Looking westward, still more remote arose other ranges of hills, 
covered with the native forest. The Connecticut river — with Bel- 
lows Falls, eleven miles away, the roar of which could be distinctly 
heard — flowed between the two States, and beyond which towered 
ridge after ridge, each succeeding one growing loftier, until lost in 
the famous Green Mountains of Vermont, fifty miles distant. 

One who has never witnessed a New England sunset cannot con- 
ceive the gorgeousness of the scene, here in its glory. Directly 
south loomed up the lofty head of old Monadnack, forty miles away. 
Beacon fires on a Fourth of July night have here been lighted, flash- 
ing their smiles upon Bunker Hill monument, seventy-five miles to 
the southward. To the north-east, one hundred miles distant, we al- 
most seemed to see the White Mountains up among the clouds. 
2 



18 KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 

Having scanned the most striking objects in the distance, we will 
look at those less prominent. A little way to the east is a little 
lakelet surrounded by hills, its margin skirted with forest trees, its 
surface placid, its waters cold and deep. Only one person, a boy, 
who stole out from his home on a Sunday afternoon to have a skate 
on the newly formed ice, was ever known to have been drowned in 
its waters. The boy's hat revealed his sad fate. Looking south- 
west over a forest of evergreen trees on a plain, is a little country 
village with its white cottages. Just beyond this another lakelet, 
exceeding^ beautiful. For more than a century it has been a favor- 
ite resort for people near and far away. The late Rev. Dr. Vinton, 
of New York city, and family, spent many a summer vacation, en- 
joying the hospitality of a farmer's home near by, and riding or 
fishing daily in its waters. One of the most remarkable facts, is, 
that of the many thousands who have here bathed, fished, sailed and 
skated, not one has ever been known to have been drowned. 

We now come to the place and point of our story. The home that 
now affords us a delightful resting place superseded the original 
log-cabin, built when the countiy was a " howling wilderness." The 
entire region was then covered with a dense forest, only a little clear- 
ing had been made around the homes of the early pioneers. There 
were no roads, except foot paths, or " Indian trails." The guide 
boards, were "blazed" trees. About one hundred and fifty years 
ago a man and his wife and a little boy named Jacob, had their 
home in the cabin. The father, when time permitted, was cutting 
away the forest to broaden his fields for cultivation, to grow his 
grain and vegetables. 

One pleasant afternoon the little boy asked his mother if he might 
go out and see his father chop down the great trees. The mother 
said he could go, and come in with his father at night. When the 
day's labor was over, the father returned to his cabin. The mother, 
not seeing her little boy with him, asked, "Where is Jacob?" The 
father did not know; had not seen him. Instantly it flashed upon 
them that Jacob was lost. Hurriedly they went out to look for him. 
They called and searched — searched until night's sable drapery set- 
tled down upon the black forest. He was not found. They retired 
to their lonely cabin. It was very dark within. The sunlight, ihe 
light of that home, the little sunbeam was not there. The supper 
had been prepared and was on the table. There lay the little pewter 



PEE LUBE. 19 

plate; there stood the little chair. Each whispered "missing." 
The rude playthings upon the floor whispered u missing." The 
supper was untouched; how could they eat! All night long they 
watched. How could they close their eyes in sleep when the 
fate of little Jacob was weighing them down, crushing out their 
fondest hopes, centered and bound up in their little idol ! In vain 
did they pile the wood upon the fire, or set a light in the window, 
hoping to attract his weary feet in their wanderings homeward. In 
vain did they peer out into the pitchy darkness, or call " Jacob ! 
Jacob ! O, Jacob !" In vain did they listen to hear the childish cry : 
" Papa or for mamma to come to me quick." No responses came but 
the doleful "hoot" of some great owl, or the growl of bears, for they 
w^ere dwellers in the woods. The harrowing and most unwelcome 
thoughts would come to them. " Has he been killed by the bears ? 
Are they growling over his bones with whetted appetites for more 
human blood ?" 

The long night passed slowly away. Early in the morning light 
the father hastens to the nearest neighbors, a mile away, to tell of 
their great distress. The news was sent speedily to other neighbors, 
and with alacrity and sympathy all responded. The entire day was 
spent in the most vigorous and careful search. Not a trace had 
been discovered. Another night of fearful forebodings drove sleep 
from the disconsolate family. The second day dawned. Great num- 
bers came to join in the hunt. When the sun again went down 
behind the green hills of Vermont, no tidings had been brought to 
the sorrowing parents. Not a foot-print had been seen. The night 
set in ; the deepest gloom overshadowed that humble cottage — black 
darkness. 

The morning of the third day came at last* It is said that five 
hundred men came that day to join in the hunt, the news having 
spread to the more thickly settled neighborhoods. They were ear- 
nest men, and they engaged in the search with a determination to 
find the boy or learn something of his fate. The day wore away, 
and all had returned from the hunt, the problem unsolved — a mys- 
tery of mysteries. All were preparing to return to their homes, 
having abandoned all hopes of finding the boy ; further search was 
declared hopeless and useless. The mother learned the decision 
they had made, and in almost frantic agony she came to the door 
and said that if she only knew that little Jacob was dead she would 



20 KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 

be satisfied ; but the terrible thought that he might be still alive, 
sick, dying of hunger and cold, alone, with no kind hand to soothe 
his last moments, or to listen to his little sacl story of his being lost, 
and how he had wandered so far away from his home to die alone 
in the woods, was greater than she could endure. Brave men wept 
who never shed a tear before. It moved them to activity. It was 
proposed that one more effort should be made at once, although 
night was near at hand. They formed into companies, each taking 
separate directions. Signals were agreed upon, and quickly they 
disappeared into the woods. A few remained to console the mother. 
In breathless silence they stood around the door, hoping to hear a 
signal. At last the echo of a distant gun away clown by the lake 
reverberated up through the woods. It was a relief. A trace, a 
shoe or hat, or his bones, perhaps, have been found. Anxiously they 
listen, hoping against hope, to hear another signal. It comes, he is 
found ! " Is he alive or dead ?" In breathless silence all were eager 
to hear. Hearts almost ceased to beat, so great was the intense 
anxiety, fearing they might not hear the last signal. It came — 
"Jacob is alive!" The great old woods reechoed the gladsome re- 
frain: "Jacob is alive!" "Is alive!" "Alive!" reverberated through 
the valleys and over the hill-tops. Companies far away caught the 
echoes as one company after another passed the gladsome tidings 
along: "Jacob is found." The old woods rang as never before, 
from five hundred voices in glad shouts of joy. Gum after gun an- 
swered other guns in carrying the news to the most distant. The 
victorious party soon came in sight, bearing triumphantly the little 
hero on their shoulders, seated on a hastily constructed " chair" 
made of poles and evergreen boughs, and presented him alive and 
well to the overjoyed mother. There was joy in that home that 
night, 

MUST HAVE A GUIDE. 

People unaccustomed to travel in our country when they are about 
to start on their first journey, procure the latest guide-book and con- 
sult it carefully before starting, and then take it along with them so 
as to be sure that they do not make any mistakes, or get on a wrong 
train, to be carried in a wrong direction. We have seen persons al- 
most frantic for fear that they would make a mistake. Every time 
the train stopped they would hop up and ask the conductor, or 
brakeman, or the passengers, " Is this Albany?" 



PRELUDE. 21 

Now a journey of a few days is nothing iu comparison to a jour- 
ney for life. Yet how heedless and unconcerned many young men 
are about it. " They don't care." When they start out on that track 
they are on a down grade, and every turn increases their momen- 
tum, faster and faster. Like the engineer who neglected to apply 
the brakes in time, he lost control of his train, and all went to des- 
truction. We see young men with noble talents, going from homes 
where everything has been done that could be done for them, to fit 
them for honorable positions in society, unheeding the plead- 
ings of a kind father, the tears of a devoted and anxious mother 
and a loving sister, all to no purpose. They are on the down grade, 
and all the signals and alarm bells are warning them of the fearful 
risks they are running, and the impending dangers just ahead. 
Blind and deaf to them all, they rush on in their mad career to swift 
destruction. Many a father would give all he is worth, thousands 
of dollars even ; yea, a hundred thousand dollars if he had it, if his 
son would only come back to the home he has left, Many a father has 
bowed his head in shame over the downward course of a wayward 
son, and gone down to the grave before his time in the deepest grief. 
Some have had the sad experience of standing over the grave of a 
son as a gentleman did in France. Read what he said as he stood 
at the grave of his profligate son: 

u Gentlemen," said the father, in a voice full of emotion, u the 
body before me was that of my son. He was a young man in the 
prime of life, with a sound constitution, which ought to have in- 
sured him a hundred years. But misconduct, drunkenness, and de- 
bauchery, of the most disgraceful kind, brought him in the flower 
of his age to the ditch which you see before you. Let this be an ex- 
ample to you and to your children. Let us go hence." 

We have said what we have in our Prelude, with the hope of ar- 
resting the attention of every young man into whose hands this 
little book shall fall, and that it may be a True Guide to him every 
day as long as he shall live, a guide to the only pathway to prosper- 
ity and happiness— to heaven. 



THE MISSING HOST. 

"MISSING, MY SON!'' — "TEN THOUSAND DOLLARS REWARD." 

There have been hundreds, thousands of boys lost since "Jacob's" 
time. Yes, and only a few have ever been found. Boys and young 
men are being lost every clay in the year, and every year " Missing ! 
my son!" could be posted on every street corner in every town and 
every city in the land. No five hundred men to look up each lost 
boy. Very few are ever found — many have wandered far away, be- 
come w T recks, and have no desire to be found, or when found to be 
earned back to their father's house. What an army it would make 
if all the lost and "missing" young men were placed in a line; no 
division of Gen. Grant's army would have equaled it in length. 

Many young men leave their homes so confident in all their 
childish innocence. Ignorant of the great outside world, so differ- 
ent from the little country home where they know T every man, w T o- 
man and child ; where they perhaps conceived the world swung 
around their homes, and that was the centre. 

The story of our Prelude is a true one, and our object in giving it 
a place in this book is for an illustration, to make clear and strong, 
so that no young man shall mistake, our aim, or his way. 

Boys who run away from home, we do not expect to reach ; but 
w r e hope to gain the ear of many who go away, because they must 
go if they are to accomplish an}^ good in the world for themselves 
or anybody else ; and also those who are compelled by necessity to 
" strike out." It is a momentous period in any young man's life, 
wdien the time comes to bid adieu to his home, to go out to seek his 
fortune, to be his own pilot; to hew out his own fortune. It is a 
trackless pathway to him, and every step is new. Only one step of 
the way can be seen — only one at a time. The curtain reveals no 
faster and no more. No two steps are alike ; each day the scenes 
are shifted. If you make a mistake you cannot correct it, or rub it 
out and commence anew. The chariot wheels of your car are run- 
ning at the velocity of seventy miles (heart beats) to the minute, day 
and night ; and there is only one stopping place — that comes when 
the little engine within you stops pumping life's crimson blood 



KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 23 

through your veins. • So that every mistake you make is so much 
time lost that cannot be made up — no calling back lost time. The 
web of life runs right on, and if you fail to weave in the woof as it 
passes, it will not be filled. " O, weave it well." We have seen so 
many unfortunate young men ; so many who have made sad failures, 
that we have wished that we had a trumpet through which we could 
sound the notes of alarm in the ears of every young man in the 
country, before they start out from home. Little do they know of 
the dangers that will assail them on the first day they shall com- 
mence to act for themselves. They little know of the hungry 
wolves in sheep's clothing ready to pounce on them at the first op- 
portunity. 

THE NEW HAMPSHIRE BOY. 

A young man left his home in New Hampshire for Boston. It 
was his first ride on a railroad. You would have known him from 
all the other passengers, by the way he sat on his seat, by the way 
he looked at everybody, and at everything in the car or outside. We 
can tell a new passenger on his first ride on the cars every time, 
without his speaking a word. At the depot at Boston there were a 
score just waiting for him. They knew he was on that train. Only 
one was in time to welcome him, one was enough. How glad he 
was to see him. He grasped his hand with all the cordiality of 
" my long lost brother." He took his satchel to carry. Would go 
with him any where he wanted to go; and find him a boarding 
house. Or if he preferred, would show him right up to a tip-top 
house where " I stop." Of course he was glad to go right there. 
Such a warm hearty reception was what he had not expected. He 
was just waiting for a chance to declare his gratitude for all this at- 
tention. He had to exclaim several times, " How lucky I am to 
have met you right at the depot." " I felt a little timid about com- 
ing down alone where all were strangers." "First time in my life 
I was ever so far from home." " Father told me to be careful who 
I went w T ith." " I suppose there are some men that would steal a 
fellow's pocket book if they could get a chance." "I am so glad I 
met you right there." 

The trap was not set for naught, The "bait" took. He is a vic- 
tim. Would he like to see the sights of a great city ? " I don't care 
if I do." After supper they saunter out; the nice young man takes 



24 KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 

the arm of the country youth. They stop in front of one of the gilded 
palaces. It is brilliantly lighted; the doors, with rich stained 
glass panels, hang on compound hinges, that swing both ways, 
in or out. Strains of music float out on the evening air. "Would 
he like to step in ?" " Do they let a feller in there who does not have 
no ticket ?" " O, yes; those who are acquainted are allowed to take 
in a friend if he looks pretty well." (Flattery.) " I don't care if I 
do go in." 

The door swings in for them. The splendor of the costly chan- 
deliers, with thousands of glass pendants flashing a million rainbows. 
The great mirrors — all the walls are mirrors — multiplying the guests 
many fold to his eyes. " I wonder!" is the extent of his expletives. 
He is simply bewildered. He is invited to take a seat. He sits 
down on a richly stuffed chair, which yields so readily to his weight 
that he is frightened. He is assured no harm is done, "they are 
made that way." Would he not take a glass of lemonade? "I pay 
for it; you are my guest. It is a custom with me to always treat a 
stranger on his first visit to our city." 

Soon a young man approaches and announces that "the drawing 
of the grand prize of $50,000 is to come off in a few minutes; if 
you wish to see it, gentlemen, please walk up stairs; it is free." 
"Would you like to see the drawing? $50,000 is a big pile." "I 
don't care if I do." 

Up stairs a large hall magnificently fitted up, astonishes the coun- 
try lad beyond language to express. The ticket office is open for 
the next grand drawing. Here are tables at which are seated men 
playing cards for money, and various other devices. They watch 
the game and see how fast money changes hands. A rough looking 
fellow tries his hand. He just sweeps the board every time. The 
pilot begins to warm up, and proposes to try his hand at the game. 
He puts his hand in his pocket to draw his money. " I declare if I 
have not left my pocket book at the hotel, in my trunk. I just want 
to try my hand with these fellows once. If I can't scoop them I am 
greatly mistaken. By the way, if you have a little money, fifty or 
one hundred dollars, I would like to borrow it until we get back to 
the hotel. If you have no objection, I will give you half the profits." 
" Of course I will. Let you have all I have got." He hands over 
seventy-five dollars, with the remark, " That is the first money I ever 
earned. I would let you have more if I had it. It took twenty-five 



KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 25 

dollars to buy these clothes, and then I had to pay for my ticket," 
At first the game goes well, and he is delighted. The seventy-five 
dollars has doubled. He gets excited, thirty-seven dollars and fifty 
cents made quick for him. It took him nearly four months at home 
to earn so much. The play goes on, and they are beaten. The last 
five dollars is staked and lost. The pilot says, " I was a little care- 
less or I should not have lost. I see just where I made the mistake. 
I shall try this over again. I believe in the old saying, to ' look for 
your money where you lose it.' Well, its no matter, its my loss; 
you are all right. I will return the seventy-five as soon as we get to 
the hotel. Perhaps we had better go, its getting a little late." 

The door now swings out for them. They proceed down street a 
few blocks, when all at once the pilot exclaims, " There, I forgot to 
mail a letter; just wait a minute and I will run around the corner 
and drop it in the box, and come right back." The gentleman from 
the country waited on the corner — waited a long while, waited so 
long that a policeman waited upon him to the lock-up. Not a dol- 
lar of his hard earnings for a whole year's toil was left. 

Was not his experience bitter, very bitter. It is only one case out 
of a hundred that is played every day in the year on young men 
right from the country . 

CHARLIE ROSS. 

Everybody has heard of the stealing of little Charlie Ross, and ot 
the fortune the father has spent in vain endeavor to find him. More 
than twenty-five thousand dollars has so been spent, and the father 
is still looking, anxiously looking for his darling boy. In his ef- 
forts to find him, he found many other lost boys, and returned them 
to their parents. His own he cannot find. 

prof, lieb's boy. 

Prof. Lieb, a successful teacher of music, of St, Paul, Minnesota, 
while residing at Quincy, Illinois, had a beautiful little boy stolen 
in broad day light in front of his house. For more than ten years 
he has been hunting for him, has spent thousands of dollars in trav- 
eling and in advertising, and yet u no tidings" come to him of his 
missing bo}^. As long as he lives he will look for him. 



26 KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 

WHY BOYS ABE STOLEN. 

Sixteen years ago a fatherless boy, nine j^ears of age, by the name 
of Samuel Wasgatt, was by his uncle placed temporarily in the 
" Home for Little Wanderers" at Boston, Mass. Shortly after a gen- 
tlemanly appearing man applied at the Home for a boy to adopt, 
promising a good home and fine treatment. Samuel was chosen be- 
cause of his bright and active appearance. The gentleman left his 
name and residence. Sixteen years passed, and not the slighest clue 
had been obtained either of the man or the boy, although the most 
dilligent search had been made to find them. Last July the uncle 
received a letter from London, England, written by the long lost boy 
Samuel. The man who took him from the Home was a traveling 
showman. He had trained Samuel for an actor ; had treated him 
most inhumanly; whipped the flesh off his arms literally in pieces, 
leaving cavities where they were cut out that will go with him to 
his grave. He had made him do the most daring of feats, unequaled 
in the world ; flying one hundred and fifty feet through the air, fifty 
feet above the stage, where the slightest accident would be instant 
death. He passed the lad off as a girl from the start. His stage 
name was " Lulu." He traveled the first two years in this country, 
and to cover their tracks changed Samuel's name fourteen times, and 
dressed him all the time as a girl. They traveled fourteen years on 
the continent, visiting all the great cities of Europe. Samuel was 
not allowed to communicate with his friends, or know anything but 
his master's brutal orders. At last he escaped, only to learn he had 
been held by no contract or obligation, and for more than three 
years after he had been of age. He advertised for his mother in the 
New York Herald, and she learned of her long lost boy. She w r as 
residing in our city, the wife of Leonard Rice, Esq. 

Samuel was anxious to see his mother, and sent her a draft for 
five hundred dollars to pay her expenses to visit him in London. 
The developments to her were so strange and startling, that it was 
with no little degree of hesitancy that she undertook the trip, even 
after money was received, fearing that there was some mistake about 
it; and not until she saw him face to face was she convinced it was 
her lost boy Samuel. She is now spending the winter with him at 
his own home in London. This is the history of one lost and stolen 
boy who has been found. Only one of a hundred that are ever 
found or heard from who have mysteriously disappeared. 



THE SCHEMES OF SWINDLERS. 

THE MINISTER'S SON. 

A young man, the son of a minister, was sent by his father, to 
Chicago, with a load of wheat to sell. He did not return. The 
father became alarmed. He visited the city, and vainly looked for 
his "missing" son. The father abandoned everything, spent all his 
time and money to find his boy. He traveled from city to city, from 
town to village. If he had an opportunity to preach he would do 
so, and at the close of his sermon tell of his lost son, hoping some 
one somewhere would know of his boy. He traveled up and down 
the earth, everywhere he had the least hopes of hearing of him. 
After many months of diligent search throughout the great North- 
West, he went to California, and whenever he had an opportunity to 
preach, he did so, always closing with the story of his missing son. 
At last the lost son happened to be present, and heard his father tell 
of his agony and suffering over the loss of his son. It was too much 
for the boy. He could not hide longer from his father. He told his 
father the whole story, how he had sold the wheat, and got the 
money for it, and was allured into a gambling den, lost the money, 
and was ashamed to return home ; so he sold the team and " here 
I am." The father only replies, " Enough ! Say no more ; let us go 
home." 

A young man on the cars, between Davenport and Chicago, was 
recently beaten out of ninety dollars by three-card monte-men. He 
was old enough to have known better. You may think you are smart, 
but you will find others just as smart — perhaps a little smarter. 

THE CLERGYMAN FROM ILLINOIS. 

Every day in the year the papers sound the alarm, "Look out!" 
"Beware!" They simply pass on into the very jaws of the sharks 
who grow fat on the game in spite of all the daily warnings. Ministers 
are just as liable to be " roped in" as a " verdant" from the country. 

A good old Presbyterian minister of Illinois went to New York 
city recently, where he was gladly welcomed by some nice young 
men. Learning he was a minister they took special interest in 
showing him around and warning him against a very wicked class 



28 KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 

of " stool pigeons," who were always laying around depots and ho- 
tels ready to welcome strangers, pretending to be philanthropists, to 
protect new comers from being swindled, and to direct them to suit- 
able boarding-houses. The good old minister was very glad of the 
timely warning ; that they were really engaged in a noble christian 
work. He was unaware of the " stool pigeon" system, which the 
devil had so thoroughly perfected to lead innocent young men to 
ruin. He should go home and preach a sermon on the subject to 
his young men, warning them to not come to so wicked a city as 
New York. 

" Would you like to see how one of their games is played to rob 
unsophisticated young men of their money." " Certainly, I would 
be very glad to learn, now I am here, all I can about these ' human 
sharks.'" "If you will just step around the corner we shall be 
pleased to show you how one of their tricks is successfully played 
every time on the unsuspecting." He steps around. A few green- 
backs are needed to illustrate the game. The minister lays down 
the money; he sees the game played — and played well. He is satis- 
fied with the skill with which it is performed, but awfully chagrined 
when he finds that he is the victim of the wicked young men he was 
warned to steer clear of. 

SHARP MEN ARE BITTEN. 

The devil has just as sharp and shrewd men in his employ as 
there are in the world. 

A bank officer of our city was once taken in by a sharper in Chi- 
cago so nicely that he did not know it, until he was a victim. He 
boasts at home of being " sharp" and " keen." 

A very common way to draw out a victim is this : A stranger will 
step up to a gentleman and offer his hand, and in the most bland 
and familiar way say, " How do you do, Mr. Jones ? Glad to see 
you. When did you come to town ?" " Excuse me, sir, my name is 
Smith." " O, yes, I know it is Smith, you are from" " Daven- 
port, Iowa." il Yes. Davenport is a beautiful city. By the way who 
is your Congressman now?" " Price." "What, Price?" "Hon. 
Hiram Price." " You don't say ; why Hiram is an own uncle of mine ; 
he is a smart man if I do say it, I ought to go down and see 
uncle Price ; he has invited me repeatedly to make him a visit, The 
fact of it is I am doing too much business; much more than I ought 



KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 29 

to do. I don't have any time to visit my old father even. It is all 
wrong. By the way, Mr. Smith, when do you return ?" " I go home 
on the 10 p. M. train.*" "I have a good mind to run down to Dav- 
enport with you to-night. Can just as well go to-night as any time. 
I believe I will go if I can arrange my business. I have a car load 
of horses, blooded stock, coming in from the north-west to send to 
Boston. If I can get them transferred to the Michigan Central in 
time, I believe I will go. Perhaps I could buy a car load of horses 
at Davenport, and make expenses." He was at the train on time. 
He engaged a double berth, and very generously offered Mr. Smith 
the privilege of enjoying it with him gratis. Two minutes before 
the train started in rushed a man all out of breath to collect " back 
charges" on that car load of blooded stock. The sharper apologises 
for neglecting to have called and settled the bill at the freight office. 
He has not money enough, but plenty of drafts ; one of five hundred 
dollars, one of five thousand dollars. The collector couldn't make 
the change. Mr. Smith is asked if he couldn't cash a five hundred 
dollar draft, No, he had only two hundred and fifty dollars, in cur- 
rency. The bell is ringing for the train to move. The sharper says 
to Mr. Smith, " Here are drafts on the Davenport National Bank for 
five thousand — Price's bank you know — if you will allow me to take 
your currency I will give you the draft to hold for security until we 
reach Davenport, and then you can have it cashed, take out the amount 
and give me the balance." Mr. Smith hands over the currency. The 
sharper wanted to say " good bye to an old friend outside," and that 
was the last time Mr. Smith saw the Hon. Hiram Price's nephew. 
He found his draft was " bogus" when he offered it to the bank. 

Similar games are played every day in the year upon strangers, 
with variations to suit circumstances. Sometimes three or more go 
for one man ; each one has a special part to play. The first man will 
find out name, home, business, &c, then a " trap" is prepared, and 
the kind of " bait" to set it with. Another will drive in the game. 
The last man takes the money. Although the papers daily publish 
accounts of similar swindling operations, and the police stand at 
the doors of mock auction rooms to warn the unsuspecting of the 
danger within, the victims pass in only to be swindled, as others have 
been for years and years. 



SOWING AND REAPING. 

The inevitable law of whatsoever a farmer sows, that must he reap 
in harvest, is equally true in the physical world. The farmer sows 
wheat and always gets wheat in return. Nature never changes or 
reverses her laws. If the farmer fails to plow and cultivate his land 
in the spring time, and sow his seed early, he will have no wheat in 
harvest, and weeds will grow instead, and sap its fertility. If a 
young man fails to sow the good seed in the morning of his days, to 
early in life cultivate his mind, and store it with valuable and useful 
information, he will also fail of reaping the reward that he hopes 
to obtain eventually. If the golden opportunities are suffered to 
pass unheeded, the golden harvest time will never come. You can- 
not be idle for years and keep your mind fresh and vigorous, and as 
quick and sharp to learn and retain what is learned. The harden- 
ing process cannot be overcome. You suffer a loss that cannot be 
made good, however hard you may try. 

PATIENTLY WAITING. 

The farmer sows the grain in early spring, that he may reap in 
autumn. He has to wait for the seed to germinate and pass through 
all the varied processes until it is matured grain. He does not plow 
it up in a week or a month, because it has not matured. He has to 
patiently wait for the full maturity of the ripened grain. 

One of the greatest mistakes young men are liable to make is, un- 
willingness to wait for the harvest. Because their labor, their sow- 
ing, does not bear fruit immediately, they throw up the scheme to 
try something else, which in its turn is abandoned. They are con- 
tinually changing, and the oftener they change the more unsettled 
become their minds and the greater the difficulty to buckle down to 
one thing and stick to it. They desire immediate returns for their 
investments, and because they cannot get it, they sell out at a sacri- 
fice and go into something else. It is not altogether in knowing 
what is the best thing to do, so much as there is sticking to it to the 
end. It has been well said that if any young man would go into 
any legitimate business and stick to it for ten years he would be- 
come independent. It requires courage, patience, and nerve. 



KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 31 

STICK TO YOUR BUSINESS. 

The secret of every man's success, who has worked his way up 
from poverty to affluence, is that he persistently applied him- 
self to his legitimate business. Early and late, ignoring all out- 
side business, paying no attention whatever to the many schemes 
offered, promising great returns for small investments, no matter 
how flattering. We have often seen good mechanics who could earn 
three dollars per day in the shop, trying to run a farm, or raising 
potatoes and vegetables that would cost them at least four times as 
much as it would to have bought them of dealers. Some people 
conceive the idea that their neighbors' business yields vastly 
greater profits than their own. A weak and vacillating mind never 
accomplishes anything. A man undertook to run a barber shop. 
He undertook to shave three men at once. They all got mad and 
left without being shaved, and the barber got mad because he had 
not shaved anybody. 

don't "cut the corners." 

A great many young men are inclined to clip off the corners, to 
round them off carelessly, and the more they clip the smaller be- 
comes the circle, narrowing dow T n their chances every round. Don't 
cut your corners. Leave them square as a brick. Maintain all the 
ground and hold all the chances you have ; add to instead of con- 
tracting. Your success depends upon holding your ground firmly ; 
yielding none and adding when you can. 

LAYING THE FOUNDATION. 

The very first step a young man takes for himself is the most im. 
portant one of all. If he would be right all the time he must start 
right. The first thing a builder does when preparing to erect a good 
substantial building is to lay the foundation, deep, broad and on a 
solid footing. If he fails to do this he will repent of his folly when 
it is too late. A few years ago a granite block was built in Boston 
some eight or nine stories high, and when it was completed, it was 
considered one of the best blocks in the city. Its substantial char- 
acter to all appearance made it as lasting as the granite of which it 
was built. Tenants to occupy it w r ere numerous. The builder had 



32 KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 

the utmost faith in it. They could " pile it full of pig lead." But, 
alas, before it was half stocked with goods, it went down, filling the 
street with stone, bricks, broken timbers, and bales of goods ; and sev- 
eral persons were killed who had not time to escape. We saw the 
block when completed, we saw it in ruins. Why did it fall ? Down 
in the cellar was a few feet of an old wall, and to save a few dollars 
it was left, and when the enormous weight of the structure began to 
bear down upon it, it could not stand the pressure, and the entire 
block fell in ruins. A hundred or two hundred dollars worth of 
work saved in the foundation was over a hundred thousand dollars 
loss in the end, and that was but a trifle in comparison with the lives 
sacrificed, which no money could pay for. 

THE FALL OF THE PEMBERTON MILL. 

The Pemberton mill at Lawrence, Massachusetts, a few years ago, 
fell down while in full operation and full of operatives. The ruins 
immediately took fire and one hundred and twenty-five lives were 
sacrificed. It was simply the result of the grossest carelessness of 
the superintendent, or master-builder. Iron columns were allowed 
to be put in that were defective in casting. They were thin as pa- 
per on one side and as thick as a plank on the other, when they 
should have been as true as a hair all around. When the pressure 
came upon them they were crippled. All this came by trying to 
save a little money by getting work done cheaply. No man can af- 
ford to cheat himself in the foundation. So it is in character build- 
ing. Every one must look well to the foundation. If that is defec- 
tive it will tell on him, and may bring him down. 

THE DAVENPORT BRIDGE. 

When the great iron bridge that spans the Father of Waters 
at this city was built, the utmost care was exercised in put- 
ting down the piers, to get them on a solid foundation. They went 
down until they struck the rock, and then cut down into the rock 
for the first layer, and bolted it down. The layers were cemented 
and doweled together, making a piece of masoniy as firm and solid 
as though it was hewn out of a quarry, one solid block. It will 
stand for centuries. Young man, lay your foundation deep; go 
down to the bed rock ! 



KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 33 

CHARACTER BUILDING. 

A good reputation, based upon a good character, is a fortune to 
any young man. JSTo one can eventually till the positions in the 
community that he ought to fill, and which he hopes to fill, unless 
his character is spotless. Two men in two different counties in Illi- 
nois were elected to the office of treasurer of their respective coun- 
ties. Neither could enter upon the duties of the office because he 
could not give the bonds required. The character of each for in- 
tegrity and honesty was not backed up by their friends. Conse- 
quently they failed to get the offices, and the shadow will hang over 
them to the day of their death. 

Hundreds of young men fail to get good positions in banks and 
public offices because they cannot give bonds. A cloud rests on 
their reputation. Better to sacrifice your right arm, than to have a 
cloud of suspicion on your character. Remember that you are 
building up your character every day, every hour. The public are 
scrutinizing it all the time, watching to see how you are building, 
how you are laying the foundation. The public have keen eyes and 
sensitive ears, and some terrible eave-droppers to tell on a fellow. 
Telephone wires run to every man's door. 

Four young men went into an alley late one night to quarrel qui- 
etly over their ill luck at a gambling house. A night clerk in the 
post-office heard every word they said, and knew every voice. They 
were employed by firms in the city holding responsible positions. 
If their names had appeared in the morning papers there would 
have been some vacancies, and an advertisement like this would 
have appeared, " Wanted a clerk ; none but those having the best of 
references need apply." 

A gentleman was riding in a street car, and heard two young men 
talking over a Sunday's carnival, and learned what this one and 
that one did, and what one of his own clerks did. He was thunder- 
struck. He could not believe it. It must be some other young man 
of the same name. It set him to thinking. He put a detective on 
his clerk's tracks, who followed him for two weeks. He put a watch 
on his every day work, and on the cash drawer ; also on the cus- 
tomers that were always so particular to transact all their business 
with him. The detective reported, and the next day the young man 
3 



34 KENTS NEW COMMENTARY. 

was " off duty." He was not feeling well ; had not been feeling well 
of late. Thought he would have to change climate, and he did. 

We tell you young man that you cannot ride two horses at the 
same time, especially when they are going in opposite directions. 
We often hear young men complaining that they cannot get any- 
thing to do. Other young men succeed while they fail. They for- 
get, or do not realize the fact, when sowing their wild oats, that 
they will some day have to reap them. O, the briars, the thorns 
how they scratch and tear ; yes they prick to the very quick. That 
is not all, they leave the scars, that will not wash out, or heal up. 
However much a merchant may value smartness or business talent 
in a young man, it all goes for nothing, if he is not reliable. In- 
tegrity first, integrity last. That must be your corner stone if you 
are building up a character that will stand against every temptation, 
every snare, every allurement, and give you a spotless reputation, 
and what money cannot buy. 

ADMIRAL FARRAGUT AT TEN YEARS OF AGE. 

Admiral David G. Farragut tells the story of how he laid the 
foundation of his splendid career, as follows : 

" Would you like to know how I was enabled to serve my country ? 
It was all owing to a resolution I formed when I was ten years of 
age. My father was sent down to New Orleans with the little navy 
we then had, to look after the treason of Burr. I accompanied him 
as cabin boy. I had some qualities that I thought made a man of 
me. I could swear like an old salt; could drink as stiff a glass of 
grog as if I had doubled Cape Horn, and could smoke like a loco- 
motive. I was great at cards, and fond of gambling in every shape. 
At the close of the dinner, one day, my father turned everybody out 
of the cabin, locked the door, and said to me : 

" ' David, what do you mean to be ?' 

" ' I mean to follow the sea.' 

" ' Follow the sea ! Yes, be a poor miserable, drunken sailor be- 
fore the mast, kicked and cuffed about the world, and die in some 
fever hospital in a foreign clime.' 

" ' No,' I said, ' I'll tread the quarter-deck, and command, as you 
do.' 

" ' No, David ; no boy ever trod the quarter-deck with such princi- 



KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 35 

pies as you have, and such habits as you exhibit. You'll have to 
change your whole course of life, if you ever become a man.' 

" My father left me and went on deck. I was stunned by the re- 
buke, and overwhelmed with mortification. 'A poor, miserable, 
drunken sailor before the mast, kicked and cuffed about the world, 
and to die in some fever hospital ! That's my fate, is it ? I'll change 
my life, and change it at once. I will never utter another oath ; I 
will never drink another drop of intoxicating liquors; I will never 
gamble.' And, as God is my witness, I have kept those three vows 
to this hour." 

Congress has just ordered a Twenty Thousand Dollar monu- 
ment to the boy who was a hero at ten, and greater at that age than 
ever after ; greater than Alexander the Great, who, when he had con- 
quered all known worlds, wept because there were no other worlds 
for him to conquer — conquered everything but himself, and died 
at thirty-three. Farragut fought the greatest battle of his life alone, 
single handed, leaving dead at his feet every foe. An example that 
challenges the world to produce a brighter illustration, or a greater 
hero. 

Up on the side of some mountain, or in a lonely glen, isolated 
from civilized society, other heroes have commenced their battles of 
life unknown to the outside world, with Nature their only teacher. 
David, the Psalmist, caught his inspirations while tending his 
father's sheep; one of the greatest astronomers wrought his great 
problems upon the mould board of the plow, while the oxen were 
resting. What man has done once can be done again. Young man 
this is a lesson for you to read and learn by heart, 



FORTUNE. 

Turn, Fortuue, turn thy wheel and lower the proud; 
Turn thy wild wheel through sunshine, storm and cloud; 
Thy wheel and thee we neither love nor hate. 

Turn, Fortune, turn thy wheel with smile or frown; 
With that wild wheel we go not up or down; 
Our hoard is little, hut our hearts are great. 

Smile and we smile, the lords of many lands ; 
Frown and we smile, the lords of our own hands, 
For man is man and master of his fate. 

Turn, turn thy wheel above the staring crowd; 
Thy wheel and thou are shadows in the cloud ; 
Thy wheel and thee we neither love or hate. 

— Tennyson. 

A good or bad fortune rests with each individual. It has been 
well said that " the boy is index to the man ;" that " each one is the 
architect of his own fortune.'' These trite sayings need no proof. 
The history of men of all classes in all ages of the world down to 
the present, bears indisputable evidence of this truth. The boy 
grows into manhood and the same characteristics that were promi- 
nent when a boy will show themselves in the man. It becomes every 
young man to heed these injunctions, and shape his course early in 
life, mark out the man he wants to be, and then follow the pattern 
closely, remembering that he cannot go contrary to his plans for 
years, and then jump into a character entirely the opposite. 

We often hear young men say that if their circumstances were 
different they might succeed, but, as it is, there is no use of their 
trying. Everything is against them. What did Napoleon say about 
circumstances. He asked one of his marshals about a movement 
he had in contemplation, and the answer was, if circumstances were 
favorable, it might be accomplished. Napoleon replied, " Circum- 
stances! I care nothing about circumstances ; I make circumstan- 
ces!" " Only give me a standing place, and I will lift the world," 
says one. The man of business, of energy, makes his own standing 
place. Captain Stevens was a man of this sort. He never wanted 
to take hold of a great undertaking until everybody else had failed 



KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 37 

and pronounced it an utter impossibility. Then he was ready to 
undertake the job. The engineers who first undertook to build a 
darn across the Merrimac river at Lawrence, Mass., were swept away 
with their dam, before it was completed, and narrowly escaped 
drowning. Captain Stevens was in his glory. He put in the dam 
and it will stand for centuries. 

WHAT TO DO. 

No question more difficult to answer, w^as ever asked by a young- 
man than: kk What shall I do?" Probably there is not a young man 
in the United States who has not asked himself and his friends the 
question hundreds of times. It is a very perplexing problem to 
solve. The great majority of young men to-day are like the man 
lost in a dense forest, who in his wanderings comes to where several 
paths meet, crossing each other, diverging to all points of the com- 
pass, and no guide board to point out the right path homew r ard. 
When they come seriously to think what their life-work will be, 
they are standing at a point where numerous avenues converge to a 
common centre. They look down one and up another, and are lost; 
and why? Simply because they do not know the greatest of all 
secrets — one which every young man ought to learn very early in 
life, and the ignorance of which has ruined thousands. It is the old 
maxim, "Know thyself." 

Of all the numerous acquaintances a young man may have on his 
list, they are all entirely valueless in comparison to the individual 
acquaintance with one's self. Serious mistakes, trouble and despair 
over miserable failures, come to many because of being simply 
ignorant of themselves. To every young man we would say that 
success or failure in a great measure hinges on the knowledge you 
have of yourself. You may be a superb scholar, a capital teacher, 
and yet make a miserable failure in merchandizing. It is better to 
be a first-class blacksmith, pounding red hot iron with a sledge 
hammer — playing the anvil chorus — than a dull preacher, vainly 
trying to pound theology out of a church pulpit that is neither there 
nor in the head. It is better to be a wood-sawyer's clerk than a 
briefless lawyer. If you have no conception of colors, of light and 
shade, portrait painting is not your business. If you have no taste 
for music, and cannot distinguish a concord from a discord, let that 



38 KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 

pass. If you dislike mathematics, surveying would not be a pleas- 
ant pastime. To be a successful grocer, you must be a good taster, 
and know the goods, or you will be " sold" every day in the year. 

FORTUNE TELLING. 

4k Fortune tellers" have been found in all ages of the world. No 
nation, no tribe, however low and degraded, that has not its fortune 
tellers. There seems to be a natural craving or desire in the minds 
of many to have their fortunes made known to them faster than an 
all-wise Providence sees fit to reveal. They resort to professionals 
who advertise that they have power to lift the mystic veil — the cur- 
tain that hides from ordinary mortals the future — and read off the 
events as they are to be acted out by each one who may seek to know 
of coming events. But, who holds the mystic key with which to 
unlock the mysterious future, and of unborn years ? Where is the 
artist that has the power to throw upon canvas the scenes and 
secrets these years are to unfold, with all the events that will be 
crowded into them ? Who holds the creative power to speak in to 
life the men, the women and children unborn that are to live, with 
whom you are to act, to mould and be moulded in all these years ? 
Who is able to make them stand upon the stage and rehearse the 
parts that each one is to play in the great drama of life ? Who can 
harness the elements and bid them perform their part in the grand 
unison chorus — one harmonious anthem without a break or discord ? 
Where is the fortune-teller that can accomplish all this ? 

THE ASTROLOGERS. 

The astrologer brings his horoscope to bear upon the planetary 
world, and by knowing the hour of one's birth, he tells what planets 
were in or out of conjunction, and reads your future with unerring 
certainty. The planets hold all secrets with him, and they never 
fail. But what h ;ve the planets to do with you or me, or the people 
of this world ? 

Has mighty Jupiter the destinies of the human family bound up 
in his archives, to be passed out on call to some professed astrologer^ 
some fortune teller ? Has fiery Mars or beautiful Venus a share in 
these revelations? What difference will it make in vour life or 



KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 39 

mine to know what planets were in conjunction, or out of it, at the 
hour of our birth? What has that to do with your life or mine? 
Just as much as the effect of the new moon, whether it appears over 
our right or left shoulder, and no more. Either way it is simply 
moonshine, and the best evidence of your lunacy, and of your being 
a fit subject for a lunatic asylum. 

It is simply foolishness for you to worship the planets. As well 
worship all the stars, paying your devotions to the uncounted mil- 
lions, and invoke the entire celestial powers, for fear some evil star 
may be left out to ruin your happiness, upsetting all your plans, 
present and future. Astronomers will tell you that the revealing of 
fortunes by the stars is but the trick of knaves. If there is any one 
planet that has anything to do with humanity, it is the one from 
which we come — the one to which we all must return. It is utterly 
inconceivable, incomprehensible to any thinking mind, how a star, 
a million times larger than the earth, millions upon millions of 
miles away, sweeping through its orbit with a velocity incompre- 
hensible, requiring centuries to perform a single revolution, could 
possibly have anything to do with the destinies of the inhabitants of 
the earth, much less of one single individual. Would it stop on its 
course to reveal earthly mysteries to some astrologer for his 
profit ? Astrologers tell us of stars so far distant that a ray of light 
flying with the swiftness of 200,000 miles a second, would require 
more than 6,000 centuries to reach our world, and more than 4,000 
centuries to perform a single revolution in its orbit. That star may 
have been blotted out more than 5,000 centuries after a ray of light 
started on its long journey earthward, yet that star may have just as 
much influence over human destiny as the millions upon millions 
that illuminate the milky way. When you can find an astrologer 
who can or has seated himself upon some projectile, or a cannon 
ball, propelled by a power that will not permit it to slacken its 
velocity, sweeping through constellation after constellation, through 
fiery comets, showers of shooting stars, meteoric rocks hurled from 
volcanic abysses of other worlds in convulsion, sweeping out of one 
system into other systems, on and on through immeasureable space 
to reach some other remote system unknown to the wisest astrono- 
mers of earth, a journey occupying six to ten thousand centuries, 
and having arrived in safety to your guiding star, and sends back 



40 KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 

the telegram of his safe transit and his welcome thereto, and that 
his journey and mission is a success, then by all means accept the 
revelation. But a myriad of centuries have intervened since he 
started. Where will a message reach you? What will be your 
address then ? You may say that your guiding star is not so far 
away. Perhaps that may be, but look at the figures. We are told 
that seventy births occur every moment of time, or 100,800 every 
twenty-four hours. This is forty millions a year. Multiply it by 
centuries, and solve the problem if you can. What star has been 
assigned to hold your destiny, and is it near or far away ? We think 
after you have well considered this stupendous proposition you will 
write "reductio ad abmrdum." 

The palmist measures the long and short lines upon the palms of 
the hand, and thereby one's fortune is unfolded to a mathematical 
certainty ! Another reads from pasteboard or prepared picture cards, 
and they become revealers of fate. Ground up rags! O, if they 
could speak what tales would they not tell! The settling of the 
grounds in a coffee cup settles ones hereafter beyond question. If 
the coffee should not be strictly pure, we should fear the result. 
Probably one's fortune would be a little mixed. 

A seventh son is a wonder. His power to penetrate into futurity 
is marvelous ; but when a seventh son of a seventh son puts in his 
appearance, all the lesser lights are extinguished. His power is 
augmented according to the rate of geometrical progression. We 
have not time or space to compute the magnitude of his power. 
Why, on simple multiplication he can see just forty-nine times far- 
ther into the future than a seventh son. How wonderful! How 
favored one must be who can scan the future and look dow T n so far 
into its hidden secrets ! 

THE " SPIRITS." 

They cap the climax. They have been there and seen it all. The 
grand panorama has been unfolded before their eyes. They hold the 
programme. The parts that each will act are all printed in letters 
of gold. Their residence in the spirit world has fitted them vastly 
better than any one who is confined within the bounds of this mun- 
dane sphere, consequently they must be believed. Spirits won't lie 
unless they are very wicked. Sometimes wicked spirits do slip in 



KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 41 

on the sly, however. This brings to mind the following epitaph 
prepared for a man by the name of Keazle, who had expected to 
climb the "Golden Stairs' 1 and enter the beautiful city. The epi- 
taph reveals his sad fate, and is a warning to all who consult spirit- 
rappers, or fortune-tellers. 

"There was a man who died of late, 
And by angels borne to heaven's gate; 
While hovering round these lower skies, 
In slipped the devil like a weazle, 
And down to the pit he kicked old Keazle.* 1 

THE GYPSIES. 

But if all others fail to read the " signs of the times, 1 ' as a last re- 
sort, consult the Gypsies. Should you have five hundred dollars in 
cash in your pocket, don't fail to make the fact known, as great or 
small events hinge on the contents of your pocket book. They can 
read all the future, and see coming events as clear as noon-day, but 
they cannot look inside your pocket book ! So be sure to make 
known your financial condition, and as they can see just when and 
where to invest, they will satisfy you beyond a doubt that it will 
only take your pile on a margin to make sure of ten times the 
amount. Untold wealth will flow in upon you rapidly, only you 
must allow them to hold the money to fool the fickle " goddess of 
fortune" with. 

That an all-wise Providence should, in his infinite wisdom, veil 
the eyes of his most devoted worshipers, and communicate hidden 
mysteries to roving, thieving bands of Gypsies — vagabonds of the 
meanest and lowest class — is too preposterous for a moment's con- 
sideration. 

Once on a time a lady was walking out in a beautiful park, enjoy- 
ing its loveliness, when she was approached by a person who pro- 
posed to tell her fortune. She very unwisely consented to allow 
him to show what power he possessed to read the future. Although 
she was well satisfied with her situation, he explained to her what 
she ought to do to enjoy far greater happiness, and how she could 
rise above her present circumscribed bounds, by simply changing 
her present way of living, and stand upon a higher plane. She 
finally decided to follow the fortune-teller's advice. It was a terri 



42 KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 

ble mistake. She gained nothing, but lost all her former posses- 
sions, and her happiness. All this for allowing her fortune to be 
told. For full particulars of the sad calamity that befel her and 
her children, see a very old book known as the history of the Jews. 
It can be found in all public libraries. It is among the relics of the 
collection of Jewish antiquities. No one can read it without feel- 
ing saddened and grieved at the untold misery and sorrow it brought 
to that once happy family simply by allowing a fortune-teller to 
gain their attention and accepting his advice. 

Let me say here with earnestness that no possible good can come 
to any one, rich or poor, by consulting any fortune-teller, no matter 
under what name or pretended system he may advertise. They are 
all of one class — stupendous humbugs and swindlers. It is abso- 
lutely dangerous for any young person to consult one of them. 
Persons too lazy to walk, too mean to go to the poorhouse, make it 
a profession, because they can find dupes to patronize them. 

A few years ago a fortune-teller and his wife engaged rooms in a 
large hotel at Lawrence, Mass. They issued flaming bills, inviting 
everybody to come to them and have their future unfolded. One 
night the hotel took fire and was burnt down. The fortune-teller 
and his wife lost everything but their night clothes, and would have 
lost themselves had they not been taken out of a room, and down a 
ladder by the firemen. Surely people who know so much about 
other people's fortunes should be able to read their own. Give for- 
tune-tellers a wide berth, and you will be the gainer. 

THE FORTUNE-TELLER. 

A hungry lean-faced villain, 

A mere anatomy, a mountebank, 

A thread-bare juggler, and a fortune-teller, 

A needy, hollow-eyed, sharp-looking wretch, 

A living dead man. This pernicious slave, 

Forsooth, look on him as a conjurer; 

And gazing in mine eyes, feeling my pulse, 

And with no face, as 't were, ontfacing me, 

Cries out I was possessed. — Shakspeare. 



READING FICTION. 

No young man should spend his time in reading fiction, for it is 
a waste, and he has no time to lose. Every hour he devotes to read- 
ing novels is worse than wasted. It tills the mind with that which 
is not true, giving a false coloring to real life. It weakens the men- 
tal powers instead of developing them. Reading that which requires 
no thought to comprehend, is harmful to the mind. If you were 
training for an athlete, you would not use feather pillows for Indian 
clubs, or india-rubber foot balls for cannon balls. Toy playthings 
are not the implements used to develop muscle. When one thing- 
is learned, something more difficult must be attempted. It is the 
constant exercise of the muscles that develops the power. No one 
knows what power he can develop by daily practice until he tries. 

What is accomplished by physical training can, by the same laws, 
be accomplished by mental discipline. It is development that a 
young man needs most. Not one person in ten has fully developed 
his capabilities, his native talent. Any man can ruin his system, 
become helpless as a stone, if he chooses so to do. Tie up your arm 
for six months and you will realize what inaction can accomplish. 
Let the mind have nothing to feed upon year in and out, and you 
will become an imbecile, idiotic. Read flashy novels, exciting fic- 
tion, night and day, and you will become as simple and foolish as 
the characters portrayed. Is the flavor, the fragrance of a good 
dinner better than the dinner itself? Is brass jewelry better than 
gold ? Are mock diamonds better than real diamonds ? Is counter- 
feit money better than the genuine ? If so, take the counterfeit — 
read fiction. Fiction is all counterfeit, therefore why read it at all, 
when " truth is stranger than fiction." If froth and foam will develop 
muscle, and make a Hercules of a weak body, then take froth and 
foam for a diet, How long do you think a blacksmith's arm would 
swing the sledge hammer if he w^as fed on gas ? He would probably 
get as fat as Job's wild asses did when they snuffed up the east wind. 
We have known persons to sit down and read fiction all day, and 
weep over the story of some poor unfortunate creature, a victim of 
cruel and heartless treatment in the cold and unsympathizing world ; 
yet when a real living, breathing, unfortunate, knocks in person at 



44 KENT'S NEW COMMENT AMY. 

the kitchen door, with a sick child in her arms, wet and cold, ask- 
ing for bread, while the tears fall upon the pages of fiction, the 
reader can tell Bridget to say to the poor woman she has " nothing 
for her to-day, don't let her come in." This is true in fact. It is no 
fiction. All sympathy for real suffering is dead and buried, by 
novel reading. It is the natural fruit. 

The library of Cornell College contains 40,000 volumes, and it is 
said there is not a single book of fiction in the number. Why ex- 
cluded ? For the wisest and best of all reasons, that they are harm- 
ful to any student. 

DIME NOVELS. 

One of the curses of the late war was the multiplication of low, 
trashy, and vile literature. Ten million of rattlesnakes let loose 
among the young people, and school children, could not have done 
the harm that has been and is being done by these vile nuisances. 
We have seen small boys sitting on curb-stones, on side-walks, on 
the floor-at the post-office, in the alleys on boxes and barrels, any- 
where that they could find a place to stop and read. School boys 
would have their pockets filled with dime novels to read in school, 
in church, at home, when their parents were not watching them. 
Well, what's the harm? Young people must have something to 
read. They do not want to sit down and read the bible all the time, 
or Webster's dictionary. Of course they know they are only stories ! 
Very well. Arsenic is only arsenic; everybody knows it is poison; 
knows it will kill. For all that, there are hundreds who are feeding 
on arsenic to beautify their complexion. It is splendid for that pur- 
pose, and there is nothing equal to it; it gives the finest complexion 
for a corpse of anything we know of, when laid in a casket. Flowers 
always show off to advantage when nicely arranged to harmonize 
with the beautiful complexion of the dead. "What a beautiful 
corpse, how sweet." Arsenic eating is simply death to the eater. 
Storing the mind with the contents of dime novels and that class of 
trash, is worse than eating arsenic. It poisons the mind, filling it 
with that which will in the end wreck both mind, body and soul. 
The direct teaching is downward. In short it is nothing more or 
less than "the criminal's true guide," their " first reader." Almost 
every day in the year you may see advertised, " Missing, my boy 



KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 45 

Willie Smith/ 1 or, " My daughter, Mary Smith." City marshals are 
busy hunting up the Willie Smiths, and Tom Joneses, and Mary 
Smiths and Mary Joneses, who left their homes on the direct road to 
ruin ; all poisoned by trashy, yellow covered literature. 

Hundreds of boys have been lured from their homes to become 
heroes like some of the characters they have read about. Yes, the 
saddest of it all is that, unlike the Prodigal Son, too late they 
come to themselves, and a father's house is then too far away, and 
in despair they take the next step, suicide. Not a day in all the 
year but that some of these unfortunates " pass over the river." You 
can write it down in your diary, that every young person whose 
name you read in the papers, under twenty years of age, as having 
committed suicide, was led to it by reading dime novels and similar 
publications. Young man, beware! Know well the character of 
the fountain before you drink. You can well take the judgment, 
the verdict of those who have analyzed these fountains, and know 
the deadly poison they contain, and the victims that have fallen, 
without your testing them. The way to tell mushrooms from toad- 
stools is, if you eat them and they kill you, they are toad-stools ; if 
they don't kill they are mushrooms. The safest and surest way is 
not to try the experiment. Then you run no risk. So we say as to 
novels, don't try the experiment simply to test the rule. The world 
is full of good and pure literature, suitable for all classes of minds. 
When you once have acquired a taste for the pure, you will loathe 
the sight of the impure. We would not throw out Shakspeare and 
Dickens, and that class of writers, who have written true to nature 
to expose great public evils. Tearing off the cloak of hypocrisy, 
and bringing before the people knowledge of great wrongs, of 
" wickedness in high places," that they may be corrected. ^Esop's 
Fables, allegories, and that class of writings, are able to hit hard 
when facts and names cannot be stated. One holds up to view crime 
in all its hideousness to make people abhor it, while writers of the 
other class bring before their readers the worst of characters to hold 
up their wickedness as worthy of emulation, and to gloat over their 
crimes as though they were virtues, as though crime in heroes was 
worthy to be followed. 



46 KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 

WHAT TO READ. 

Read the best books ; lives of distinguished men, of statesmen ; 
books of travels, the rise and fall of nations, biographies, scientific 
works, on astronomy, etc. Libraries are filled with the choicest 
books, and every one can select something that will not only enter- 
tain but be instructive and useful. 

Every young man should take a newspaper or two, and a maga- 
zine, if he can possibly afford it, There are but few who cannot 
invest ten or twelve dollars in papers and books each year. If all 
the little needless expenses were cut off, it will be found to cost no 
self-denial, no sacrifice whatever. If a young man wishes to keep 
up with the times and know all the important events that are pass- 
ing daily around the world, he must take a paper or he will miss in- 
formation that is of great advantage for him to know. He will miss 
opportunities that he cannot afford to miss. Newspapers are being 
introduced into public schools, and instead of reading what hap- 
pened a thousand years ago, they read what happened yesterday, 
and last night, fresh by telegraph from all principal points, coun- 
tries and cities in the world. Reading history, page by page, day 
by day, as the events transpire. A live newspaper is the best of his- 
tories. One need not wait until he is ten or twenty years older to 
learn what happened yesterday, or away back a week, or a month. 
There are people who isolate themselves from all society, live in the 
woods and think they are very wise. They look at a paper as they 
would at a mad dog, as something terrible. Handle it as they would 
a rattlesnake, with tongs. We meet such persons sometimes. We 
laugh to hear them talk ; we cannot help it. We pity them more. 
A man who thinks he can keep up with the times without a news- 
paper is simply a fool. We pity the children brought up in such 
homes. Do not fail to read the papers. They are the best educa- 
tors. The expense is trifling. There is no family but what wastes 
ten times the cost of a good weekly paper every year. Thousands 
of families spend foolishly more than the cost of half a dozen good 
papers. If they used one thousandth part of the financial ability 
that the man we knew of, did to take his family to the circus, 
they could be well supplied with choice reading material. And 
this is 



KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 47 

HOW THE MAN WENT TO THE CIRCUS. 

With the class of people that never take a paper, nothing stirs 
them equal to a circus bill. They commence planning weeks be- 
forehand to get the change ready when the circus man comes 
around. A family of this kind live in Texas. The man had been 
to market several times with butter, eggs and " sich," to secure the 
sum of money required. The circus day arrived, and with the com- 
bined mathematical talent of the household, they could not cipher 
out the problem; the whole tickets and half tickets, and extras for 
reserved seats ; the uncertainty of who was over and who was under 
twelve years of age, was too much for them. The problem was 
unsolved. An extra roll of butter, some eggs and a calf skin were 
taken along to make sure. Pater familias presented himself with his 
family before the ticket-vender, to be " counted up" and " rated." 
The total cost came to just seventy-five cents more than the cash 
capital in hand. Here was a dilemma. Who was to be left out ? 
Not one would pull the straws — draw lots — in a game of such mag- 
nitude. It was the first circus for six months, and nobody could tell 
when any other would be around, and then this was Barnum's, the 
" greatest show on earth." Curb-stone brokers were not around with 
funds to loan. A desperate move must be made. The band struck 
up, and ravishing strains of music were' wafted out from under and 
over the canvas ; the howling and growling of the animals, and the 
squealing of the monkeys, all came in on the chorus, making the 
children crazy to be there. Every moment's delay was so much pre- 
cious enjoyment and sight-seeing lost. The father was equal to the 
occasion, and he made the quickest time he ever made in his life, 
down town. He rushed into a pawn-broker's shop all out of breath, 
and made known his important business quickly. He must have 
seventy-five cents right then and there. " Take anything you please 
for security, even to the shirt " The pawn-broker selected the 
"boots," and off went the boots; and with the swiftness of a deer he 
was back and standing at the tent door to see his numerous progeny 
pass in before him ; then in his bare feet he brought up the rear, the 
proudest man in Sherman that day. That was financiering that 
could not be surpassed. Had that man been educated to business 
he would have made his mark in the world. The old saying was 
well exemplified, u Where there's a will there's a way." 



48 KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 

IMPROVING LITERATURE. 

" What do you read ?" said Mr. James T. Field, upon a visit to the 
Boston boy fiend, Jesse Pomeroy, convicted, among other atrocities, 
of the murder of three children. " Mostly one kind," was the re- 
ply, " mostly dime novels." " And what is the best book you have 
read ?" " Well," he replied, kt I like ' Buffalo Bill' best, It's full of 
murders and pictures about murders." "And how do you feel after 
reading it?" kk O, I feel as if I wanted to go and do the same." 

Since writing what vve have on Fiction, we fortunately came 
across the following editorials, which we have clipped from The 
Congregationalist, published at Boston, Mass., one of the best and 
most reliable papers of the christian press. Read what it says, 
and see if we have said one word too much of the terrible evils re- 
sulting from dime novels, and all that class of trashy literature: 

"WHAT SOME BOYS READ. 

" The young lady teacher of a Sabbath School class of boys, in a 
New York city church, proposing to present her scholars with a 
Christmas gift of books, asked them to hand in the names of the 
volumes they would like best, Two applied for " Robinson Crusoe," 
and one for " Swiss Family Robinson ;" but to her surprise there was 
a decided majority of votes for " Indians." The Ponca delegation 
were around, and the lady surmised that sundry newspaper para- 
graphs might have interested her charge in them. But on looking 
into the matter more closely, she found that not the fate of Standing 
Bear, Mr. Woodworker, nor even of Bright Eyes herself, had wrought 
on their young hearts. One of the class had somehow captured, 
and had shown to the rest, a regular " blood and thunder" story of 
the " dime" order, replete with gore shed in night assaults, with 
tomahawks and scalping knives ; and the hair-lifting perusal each 
boy wanted to enjoy alone and at leisure. 

" These boys were not ragamuffins either, but members of respecta- 
ble households ; the church being on Fifth Avenue, and one of the 
wealthiest in the city. No wonder that something of a damper was 
thrown on the fair teacher's plan for putting a useful class of books 
where they would do the most good ; but the practical lesson in boy 
nature may be to her a fair compensation. The question as to how 



KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 49 

much those boys' parents knew of their tastes in books, and how 
much they did or failed to do in shaping them, is a suggestive one. 
How about your boy?" 

And again a few days later : 

" By a singular coincidence the brief editorial in our issue of Jan- 
uary 28, on What Some Boys Read, received a striking corroboration 
on the veiy day the article went to our readers. At two o'clock on 
the morning of the 28th, three runaway boys from Worcester, aged 
eleven, twelve, and thirteen years, were arrested in the streets of New 
York, armed with revolvers and a clasp-knife, and carrying for 
stores a can of oysters, smoking and chewing tobacco, fishing lines 
and hooks, a song-book, and one or two murderous Indian tales. 
When questioned, it came out that they had stolen twelve dollars, 
and with the remaining eight and a quarter of it, were making their 
way to Colorado and the mountain territories beyond, with bloody 
intent, to exterminate the Indians. Their opportune capture gives 
the gentle savages a longer lease of life, and affords the government 
an opportunity still to do them justice. But what of the boys — their 
reading, the molding influences thus early mastering them, their 
probable future ? And what, by the way of prevention or remedy, 
is to be done with men who so abuse the press, to the perversion and 
poisoning of such unripe minds ? Must this vile corrupting process 
go on forever?" 

We also take from the same paper, the following, which appeared 
as editorial on February 25th last, in relation to the same subject: 

" Two more illustrations of the natural outcome of the " Jack 
Sheppard" sort of reading, so freely furnished for boys, have come 
to light within a week in the vicinity of New York. At Milton, a 
little way up the Hudson, three boys, aged respectively thirteen, 
eleven and ten years, got access to the closed summer home of a 
New York lady, stole whatever took their fancy, and reveled for a 
week on her stores of fruits, preserves, etc. Not content with this, 
they showed their manly independence by destroying the mirrors, 
curtains, and such other property as they could not use. 

" At the same time another and larger gang, some of them not 

over ten years old, under the leadership of a " big boy" captain, a 

little older, were "working" the stores and dwellings of Jersey City 

Heights in regular burglar style; the little fellows being thrust 

4 



50 KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 

through the fanlight, or a broken pane, and passing out the plunder, 
which was taken to a thief's clen near by, kept by an imitation 
" Fagin," who disposed of it, and gave the young scamps an occa- 
sional dime. But the boys are of reputable — some of them of 
wealthy — families, and evidently plied this secret trade by night 
rather for the romance, than the profit of it. 

" Now what of the parents who allowed them to form such asso- 
ciations and tastes, and then did not know whether or not they were 
in their beds from midnight to morning V It is abominable that 
men should be allowed to print and circulate stuff so ruinous in its 
tendency; but it does seem as if watchful parents might so pre- 
occupy the minds of their boys with something better, as to keep 
them from ripening into criminals before they reach their teens." 

Read what a poor heathen in Africa thought of the power there 
is in a good book to influence a brute — a dog : 

" When Robert Moffatt, the missionary, was in England he told 
an amusing story of a poor African, who lived near one of the mis- 
sionary settlements, and whose dog, by some accident, had got pos- 
session of a Testament in the native language, and had torn it to 
pieces, devouring some of the leaves. The man came to the mis- 
sionaries in great dismay and laid his case before them. He said 
that the dog had been a very useful animal, and had helped to pro- 
tect his property by guarding it from wild beasts, and also in hunting 
and destroying them ; but he feared it would now be useless. The 
missionary asked him how this was. As for the injury done, that 
was but an accident, and the Testament could be replaced by an- 
other copy. 'That is true,' said the poor man, 'but still I am afraid 
the dog will be of no further use to me. The words of the New 
Testament are full of love and gentleness, and after the dog has 
eaten them, it is not likely that he will hunt or fight for me any 
more.' " 

The Illustrated Christian Weekly of March 6, 1880, also says : 
u Parents and guardians who neglect their sacred duty of directing 
the intellectual as well as"material diet of their children, are having 
frequent and painful reminders of the dangers they incur. The re- 
cent report of young burglars, highwaymen, and suicides, have 
shocked the community, but in every case the fact has appeared that 



KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 51 

the reading of dime novels and Boys' Papers have incited them to 
their crimes. Reckless dealers in poison are held to strict account 
by the law. Why should these wilful corrupters of youthful imagi- 
nations be exempt from the responsibility of their heinous business ? " 

At a recent dedication of a branch of the Boston Public Library, 
in Dorchester, Mass., William T. Adams (Oliver Optic) said: 

" When I began to write stories for the young, I had a distinct 
purpose in my mind. How well I remember the books I read un- 
known to my parents, when I was a boy ! They were ' The Three 
Spaniards,' 'Alonzo and Melissa,' 'The Mysteries of Udolpho,' 'Ri- 
naldo Rinaldini, ' ' Freemantle, the Privateersman, ' and similar 
works, not often found at the present time on the shelves of the 
booksellers, though I am sorry to say, their places have been filled 
with books hardly less pernicious. The hero of these stories was a 
pirate, a highwayman, a smuggler, or a bandit. He was painted in 
glowing colors, and in admiring his boldness, my sympathies were with 
this outlaw and outcast of society. Tftese books were bad, very bad, be- 
cause they brought the reader in sympathy with evil and wicked men. 
*****/ am willing to admit that I have sometimes been 
more sensational than I noio wish I had been." 

GOOD BOOKS TO READ. 

14 God be thanked for books. They are the voices of the distant 
and the dead, and make us heirs of the spiritual life of past ages." 
— Channing. 

41 A library is not like a dead city of stones, yearly crumbling and 
needing repair, but like a spiritual tree. There it stands, and yields 
its precious fruit from year to year, and from age to age." — Garlyle. 

Would you be delighted to hear the roar of cannon, the clash of 
armies, the shouts of victoiy, the groans of the dying ; to wade 
through rivers of human blood ; to scale the Alps ; to follow a de- 
feated army in its retreat from Moscow in the deep snows of a ter- 
ribly cold winter, harrassed by an army foaming with rage, mad- 
dened over their city in ashes, rendering thousands homeless ; to see 
the dead corpses of fifteen thousand soldiers, of an army of forty 
thousand men, lining the way, the snow their only winding sheet, 



52 KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 

and their grave ! If you have a taste for scenes of this class, read 
"Abbott's Napoleon." So vividly will all the scenes come before 
you, that your blood will almost curdle in your veins. 

Do you wish to see Old Mexico, and revel in the halls of the 
Montezumas? Prescott will conduct you safely there and back. 
You may prefer a cooler climate, or a trip to the north pole ; Dr. 
Kane will welcome you to a journey with him, and take you where 
eternal silence reigns supreme, and night hangs her sable curtain 
for two long months in the year, and it is twilight for nearly four 
months additional ; to feast on polar bear steak, and drink train oil 
by the gallon. 

Perhaps you would prefer an serial voyage, and to soar away from 
earthly delights ? Prof. Mitchell awaits your coming. The chariot 
is ready for the trip to the most remote star. He will gladly guide 
you to other worlds and systems, through the unexplored regions of 
infinite space, on a voyage requiring centuries to make the tour. If 
you are timid and have not the time to spare for so grand a journey, 
an underground trip may suit you better; Prof. Winchell will 
conduct you down to, and through earth's mysterious chambers, and 
read to you of the ages past, when life was unknown ; of the inter- 
vening centuries before man appeared upon the earth; or Hugh 
Miller will be delighted to sit down with you, with his little ham- 
mer in hand, to crack the rocks and read up their testimony, and 
he will also tell you what he knows of the old red sandstone. 

Africa may have a charm for its wealth, its diamond fields. You 
may prefer to join an exploring expedition to determine the source 
of the Nile. If so, Mungo Park, Cameron, Baker, Livingstone, and 
Stanley, are ready to give you their experience in that dark land, 
over which the shadow of ignorance and superstition hangs like a 
pall. 

The Holy Land has been carefully studied, explored and surveyed 
by the best classic scholars of the age. Jerusalem and its environs 
have been described most graphically. Robinson, Smith, Thomp- 
son and others, will give you their experience and travels. A run 
down to Egypt and a look at the pyramids may not be uninteresting. 
The problem as to the science of astronomy having been well under- 
stood at the time of their building six thousand years before the 
Christian era is still unsolved. Layard will tell you of the wonders 



KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 53 

he has exhumed from Ninevah and Babylon, two of the most re- 
markable ancient cities of the old world, with walls one hundred 
feet high, and eighty feet thick ; with fifteen hundred towers, two 
hundred feet high at intervals along the wall. 

When you have become interested in and familiar with the works 
published in relation to the world and its inhabitants, we think you 
will not feed on novels of the " dime" order. 



HEALTH. 

Of all the blessings in this life, none are of so great value as good 
health. A young man possessed of a robust frame, a strong consti- 
tution, free from any hereditary disease, has a fortune that he cannot 
afford to be careless or indifferent about. It is a prize that cannot 
be estimated by any human arithmetic, or valued by gold piled 
high enough on the scales to make an equivalent. It is a priceless 
treasure. No wealth, no rank, no position, can equal it in value. 
All the united and combined treasures of the world cannot compare 
with the value of good health. 

It is of the utmost importance that every one should rightfully 
estimate its worth, that they may exercise the most diligent watch- 
fulness, that it may not slip from them, or be prematurely injured or 
lost. Every fountain of pleasure, every enjoyment in life, is marred 
when there is pain. 

To be free from pain for a single day, some would give thousands 
of dollars. Millions of money are spent annually by invalids 
hunting for the fountain of eternal youth ; sparing no expense 
or time traveling up and down the earth, hoping to find a cli- 
mate that will bring back health. No one can be successful in 
active business life if he has a broken down constitution, that is 
continually demanding his care and attention. It interrupts all 
plans of business or pleasure, causing great disappointment when 
least prepared to meet it. Only those who have once enjoyed per- 
fect health and lost it, know its value. 



54 KENT '£ NE W COMMENT AB Y. 

GOOD LIVING. 

Good living consists in eating good wholesome food, well cooked, 
three times a day. Remember, we eat not for the simple pleasure of 
eating, but to nourish the system, to repair the injury, loss and waste 
that is going on continually. The blood, the brains, the bones, and 
the muscles, call for fresh supplies to keep them satisfied, healthy, 
hearty, strong. Each one requires a special diet, and will not ac- 
cept of any substitute. If it is not supplied it suffers, and other 
parts are compelled to submit to loss. Oat-meal is classed as one 
of the best articles of food for health, and superior for developing 
brain power. It has been, and is to-day, the standard article of food 
with the Scotch, and where is the nation that has produced greater 
men intellectually than Scotland. Not less than one thousand bar- 
rels of oat-meal are shipped from Iowa every day in the year to 
Scotland. That which produces good blood and a healthy constitu- 
tion, is what everyone should eat. If properly cooked and eaten 
slowly, thoroughly masticated and mixed with the saliva, one never 
need to have the dyspepsia or any other ills. 

But if you are too lazy to take care of yourself, and indulge your 
appetite, you can be assured that you will have all the ills flesh is 
heir to, gratis. 

CLEANLINESS. 

Nothing conduces so much to good health as cleanliness. Noth- 
ing but free use of soap and water will keep one's person in a 
healthy condition. Every person should bathe as often as once a 
week, and in warm weather several times a week. It is absolutely 
necessary that the pores be kept open, thereby increasing the vigor 
of the system and fortifying it against disease. We always prefer a 
good bath in the coldest of weather if we are to ride all day in a 
carriage. 

A warm bath followed by a dash of cold water all over, with 
thorough rubbing with crash towels until a warm glow is felt all 
over, with a few gymnastic exercises, and the system returns to its 
normal state, and the rigor of a long cold ride is greatly relieved 
without the least danger of taking cold. Some fifty ladies and gen- 
tlemen took baths at the Hot Springs, Ark., in water from 90° to 



KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. K 

100° Fahrenheit, on a very cold day when the ground was frozen, 
and we all went on our journey, and not one suffered in the least 
from the bath. A lazy person is sure to take cold, simply because 
he is too lazy to rub himself and bring the blood to the surface. If 
your feet are inclined to perspire, you cannot be too careful about 
keeping them clean, and not wearing socks without changing often. 
Nothing is more offensive than the perspiration absorbed into the 
sock, and then warmed up to fever heat. We have had persons to 
dine with us, the odor of whose feet was sickening. 

THE BEST MEDICINE. 

The best remedy for a young man is plenty of water, internally 
and externally. We never take any physic. There is no necessity 
for it. We can tell you a remedy worth a thousand dollars for you 
to know. When you are in need of a cathartic or are bilious, take a 
hot bath, as hot as you can endure it, followed hy a dash of cold 
water, when there should be work, and lively at that, Rub yourself 
until your flesh burns, and be sure to rub well. One application 
will do you more good than a carload of pills. If you have not 
strength for the work, get some one to help you. A bath once a week 
will be all that is necessary. If the bowels and liver have become 
dormant, friction upon the surfaces will restore them to healthy 
action ; medicine will not do it. Remember that in taking medicine 
the dose must be increased a little every time. A tumbler of water 
every morning, an hour before eating, will keep your bowels regu- 
lated. Fruit is good and lemons are excellent, but no sugar, nothing 
but the lemon juice and water. If you can not sleep at night, get 
up and take a towel and rub yourself well, and you will drop to sleep 
immediately. The philosophy of it is simply this, that certain parts 
of the body are over-tired, and by rubbing the blood is put in a 
healthy circulation throughout the entire system. When all parts 
are waked up by its flow, all will rest harmoniously, and sleep is the 
natural result. Water is the best medicine, it is the cheapest. If 
eveiyone would use plenty of water they would have little use for 
medicine or doctors. To keep the pores open, frequent bathing is 
necessary. When a person is tired and weary he stops work and lies 
down to rest. That is just what the stomach and organs of digestion 
require. They become tired by overwork, and need rest and must 



56 KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 

have it, or there will be damages to pay for. One-half of the sick- 
ness is caused by over-work or over-eating, or by eating indigestible 
food. The crowding down ill-masticated food without the proper 
mixing of the saliva, and washing it down with cold ice-water, or iced- 
milk and tea, thus reducing the temperature of the stomach twenty or 
thirty degrees below where digestion begins its process of converting 
into chyme — to blood — is a dangerous proceeding. Late suppers, 
with food as difficult to digest as pig lead, will ruin the strongest 
constitution. The whole system becomes gorged and breaks down, 
and the wheels stop. Then comes the forcing process, and stimu- 
lants, bitters, beer, whisky, etc., are freely imbibed, driving on the 
poor tired organs to greater efforts. 

The horseback rider, to increase the speed of his animal, applies 
the whip and spur, urging the horse until he drops dead in his 
tracks. Drinking bitters and whisky is the whip and spur to the 
stomach. The horse that is constantly ridden at the top of his speed 
under the cruel goading of whip and spur, becomes accustomed to 
the forcing process, and will after a while not move without. We 
have all seen horses with great scars and welts where the whip and 
spurs have lacerated the flesh. If some of the old whisky soakers 
could for once see the inside of their stomachs, they would find it 
all covered with patches, scabs and sores, the delicate covering de- 
stroyed. When the stomach gets into that state it loses its natural 
power to crave food, and nothing but an artificial stimulant will re- 
store the appetite. The mouth tastes bad on rising in the morning, 
so the morning dram must be had before breakfast. It becomes a 
disease. The true way is to let the stomach rest ; refrain from eating 
as much as possible. The system will return to its normal condition 
of itself. 

Thousands, who have the money and time, visit Saratoga Springs 
to recuperate. What do they do there ? Well, the first thing is to 
get up early in the morning and go to the springs, and drink one to 
five glasses of water. Then, exercising an hour before they take 
breakfast, The great point of emulation is to see who can drink 
the most water. Now, if the same parties would drink good cold 
water every morning at home, they would be just as well off and 
save at least a trip to Saratoga and $5 a day expense. The same 
people would not dare to drink a tumbler full of cold water at home 



KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 57 

in the morning; it would be dreadful. That there is great virtue in 
drinking Saratoga water early in the morning we have the fullest as- 
surance, and also that anywhere else there is nothing equal to drink- 
ing good water an hour before breakfast. Water is a tonic. It tones 
up the stomach, cools down the fever heat, and passes off through 
the kidneys readily. 

BEWARE OF THE DOCTORS. 

"I feel it not! 1 '— "Then take it every hour. 11 
"It makes me worse!" — "Why, then it shows its power." 
"I fear to die! 11 — "Let not your spirits sink, 
You're always safe while you believe and drink.'*' 

" Can the patient pay? 
And will he swallow draughts until his dying day? 11 

If you take proper care of yourself, are temperate in all things, 
and do not become exposed to sudden changes of weather without 
dressing accordingly, you will never need any medicine, unless you 
meet with some accident, in which case only a surgeon can treat 
you. But remember that all medicine is poison, or it would have no 
effect. The most deadly poisons are given as remedies by all lead- 
ing physicians. 

A few years ago one Dr. E. J. Fountain conceived he had discov- 
ered the matchless sanative for all human ills, and was writing up 
its virtues. Dr. F. lectured before an eastern medical society, di- 
lating upon the great medicinal virtues of his new discovery. A 
physician in New Jersey heard the lecture and became a disciple. 
He gave his first patient the prescribed dose. The second dose was 
the last, and resulted in the death of the patient. The physician was 
prosecuted for manslaughter or mal-practice. He wrote to Dr. Foun- 
tain asking him to furnish him with all the facts in connection with 
his practice; for all the information possible. This was just what 
Dr. Fountain desired, and he was too glad to do so. It would bring 
him at once before the public and his reputation would be estab- 
lished as one of the leading physicians of the country. He secured 
the reputation. To be a better witness, Dr. Fountain took about six 
doses in one to prove it was a safe remedy. He stepped into the 
store of a well known druggist and requested him to weigh out the 
specified amount, which was one-half ounce of chlorate of potassa . 



58 KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 

It was weighed with the most scrupulous care — that there should be 
no mistake as to the exact ^quantity — and the doctor took it in the 
presence of the druggist, and bade him to make a record of the fact. 
The doctor started homeward, and meeting a brother physician told 
him what he had taken. The physician remarked to him that he 
didn't "look any the better for it." Arriving at his home he went 
immediately to bed, and for more than a week he suffered untold 
agonies. Although he knew what he ^had taken, and his brother 
physicians also knew, yet they couldn't save him and he died a mar- 
tyr to his own ignorance ; and thus before the impending trial came 
on, Dr. Fountain had ' breathed his last. The prosecution had the 
best of it — a dead witness. " Deadmen tell no tales." One dead wit- 
ness to them was worth a score of living ones. It is unusual, we be- 
lieve, however, for a dead witness to give the best testimony, as it 
certainly did in this case. 

Dr. Fountain was no "quack." He was a regular graduate of an 
eastern medical college, and had a diploma, He was a thorough- 
bred old school practitioner, and a leading member of the Scott 
County, Iowa, Medical Society. The friends of many he had treated, 
laid away in the cemetery, had no very pleasant reflections over his 
demise. The unhappy thought would come, " Have they been made 
victims of similar experiments?" 

You may be the subject for some doctor to experiment with. There 
are some human butchers for the sublime interest and devotion they 
have to science, who delight to cut and slash when and w r herever 
they have the opportunity. We are reminded of the surgeon in the 
army who cut the wrong leg off of the wrong man, and when the 
hospital steward reminded him of the fact, replied it was a matter of 
no consequence as it would have probably been " shot off " in the 
next battle, anyway. Very consoling to the sick soldier when he re- 
turned to consciousness. We suppose that science demands the 
slaughter of a few subjects annually. 

The newspapers frequently chronicle some " Remarkable Surgical 
Feat," "Triumph of Science," " Patient doing as well as can be ex- 
pected." We have no doubt about it. It is all true so far as it goes, 
but, to be true as to the results, a "P. S." should be added : "Patient 
survived the operation about two hours," " Obituary notice will ap- 
pear in our next issue," "[Fault of nurse," no doubt, More than one 



KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 59 

physician has had to pay " hush money " to keep friends from pros- 
ecuting for inhuman butchery. 

We do not wish to be understood as conveying the impression tha^ 
all who belong to the medical faculty are experimenters, and delight 
in cutting to pieces their patients for the purpose of gaining a great 
reputation for surgical skill ; far from it. We know personally 
some noble christian gentlemen who honor the profession, and are 
good physicians. They have the fullest sympathy for their patients 
and suffering humanity at large. It is a noble profession, and for 
that reason thousands have assumed the title of " M. D." — and that 
is why the country is over-run with " quacks," gulling the people 
and killing more than they cure. If your think you are ill, and 
need advice, consult a local physician, not a traveling mountebank 
who is here to-day and is gone to-morrow. Skilled physicians do not 
need to travel to gain practice. It is merit that wins. 

To be well and to remain well you must exercise constant daily 
care of the house }^ou live in, or it will go to decay long before there 
is any need of it. If you have a healthy body and take proper care 
of it, there is no reason why it should wear out in 25 or 30 years, or 
why it should not last a century, and run down gradually like an 
old clock. Proper food and exercise should keep it in running or- 
der at least 75 or 80 years. Sidney Bartlett, Esq., of Boston, made a 
strong and vigorous appeal before the United States Supreme Bench 
at Washington, D. C, a few days ago, and he is over 81 years old. 
Our grandfather lived to be 93 years old, and at 90 he mowed in the 
hay field. 

" Avoid in youth luxurious diet, 

Restrain the passion's lawless riot; 

Devoted to domestic quiet, 
Be wisely gay; 

So shall ye, spite of age's fiat. 
Resist decay/ 1 

THE CONNECTICUT DOCTOR'S REMEDY. 

A Connecticut doctor won a great reputation as a veiy successful 
physician. It was a mystery to everybody why he had so much bet- 
ter success than other doctors. He was frequently importuned to 
reveal the secret, but always refused to tell any one. At last, how- 
ever, he told them that his principal medicines were bread pills, and 



60 KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 

his syrups sweetened water. For years, some persons had to have 
one of his pills every night, or they could not sleep. But when they 
knew the secret, although cured, they were so indignant, he was 
obliged to leave the place. Not one of them would afterwards 
employ him. 

invalid's retreat. 

Years ago there was a physician residing near Boston, Mass., who 
made a specialty of treating invalids — ladies who were not suffering 
from any special disease, but who simply needed exercise. He had 
a beautiful carriage in which he would invite them to take seats. 
Then the way he would drive would be a caution. The carriage was 
without springs — set right down to the axles. The way they hopped 
around was very amusing. They would cry out, " Oh, doctor, doctor, 
you are killing me; do stop; I shall die." It was the only way he 
could do them any good. They would not take exercise, and that 
was all they needed, and when they took his prescription they got 
the exercise. 

GETTING UP IN THE MORNING. 

Young men must arise in the morning if they "mean busi- 
ness." To get up early one must retire early. If you are awake 
until one or two o'clock in the morning you cannot rise early. You 
will be late to breakfast, late to business, and too late to succeed. 
You will miss the best chances and the best bargains. Take exer- 
cise, plenty of it. If your business is in-doors, you must take exer- 
cise, and you cannot take too much. Your system demands and 
must have it, or suffer the consequences. Every one ought to be out 
of bed an hour, at least, before breakfast, and half of that time out of 
doors. A walk, a run, a jump ; go through with gymnastic exercise ; 
swing the arms backward and forward over the head ; strike out, 
strike back, any way, every way, to wake the dormant muscles and 
send the blood tingling through the extremities into a healthy cir- 
culation. Last but not least, you must have lung power. Half of 
the people do not know how to breathe. One-half of their lung 
power is not brought into action. " Too lazy to breathe " is a saying 
which is too true. Tying up the lungs is like tying up jour knees 
in splints, and undertaking to walk or work. Many are hampering 
their lungs; destroying them by tight lacing. 



KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 61 

HOW TO DEVELOP LUNG POWER. 

Place a pipe stem in the mouth and hold it fast. Inhale through 
the nostrils until your lungs are filled to the utmost capacity, then 
"blow off" through the pipe stem. Repeat it several times before 
breakfast, in pure air — not the poisoned atmosphere of sleeping 
rooms, or fetid air cooked in the sitting room, full of fine dust. Hun- 
dreds of model housekeepers must have fresh water to drink and to 
cook with, and will not use water that has been boiled once, but 
pour it off to have it fresh, yet never think of throwing open the 
windows and doors to let out the cooked air, which has all the good- 
ness baked out of it, all the oxygen burned out of it by hot air fur- 
naces, coal stoves, gas and oil lamps — air that has been breathed 
over and over by a dozen persons through the day and night before, 
for weeks even, robbed of all its life-giving elixir and loaded down 
with the deadliest of gases. 

Every window and door should be thrown wide open the coldest 
morning in the year, to let off the poisons and to let in the life-giv- 
ing, pure oxygen fresh from heaven. Instead of doing this they 
cork up every door and window air-tight, to keep in what should go 
out and to keep out what should come in. To ward off diptheria, 
scarlet fever, pneumonia, and that dreaded of all diseases, consump- 
tion, fresh air must be given access, or the doctor will come in, fol- 
lowed by the undertaker. If you want to see these gentlemen, cork 
up your houses air-tight, and don't allow any doors or windows to 
open. They will respond to the call you will be sure to make. Poor 
children sleeping under doors for bed spreads, and where the wind 
plays waltzes and quicksteps with the ill-fitting windows all the 
night long, are hearty and strong, while the children of the wealthy 
are pale, puny, pulselesss and lifeless. Without pure air life is en- 
feebled, developing a feeble constitution, ready to break down under 
the least effort. If they grow up it is only to suffer for the sins of 
their parents. 

Church sextons often have but little sense in this respect. Instead 
of throwing open the windows and letting off the foul air, they un- 
dertake to heat it over and over again. No wonder some ministers 
are dull, and sleepers are numerous. It is enough to put to sleep 
seven times u seven sleepers." 

But we have digressed from our starting point. The great secret 



62 RENTS NEW COMMENTARY. 

of building up a strong and healthy system is the proper develop- 
ment of the lungs. Deep breathing, way down — to your boots. 
Look at the blacksmith's bellows, watch the long sweep of the lever, 
every inch of space in the bellows filled to its utmost expansion. If 
you were to study elocution, we think the first lesson would be how 
to breathe. Half of the people do not know how to breathe. Great 
singers and elocutionists understand it. If they did not they would 
break down in a month. The muscles of the chest must be brought 
into play and disciplined. Proper use of the vocal organs is neces- 
sary for health. Good singers and teachers of elocution increase 
their corporeal system greatly and become portly. Persons have in- 
creased the girth around the chest five inches in six months' prac- 
tice, by simply inhaling fresh air as we have already suggested, and 
" blowing off'" through a pipe stem. 

MINISTERS VS. LAWYERS. 

A minister stoops over to read his manuscript ; the muscles and 
chords of the vocal organs are compelled to work under a brake, 
unnaturally. The tones are muffled, guttural, or squeaky. The air 
from the lungs is loaded with the rankest of poisons, and is thrown 
against the windpipe, and the delicate coating is scorched and burnt 
by the hot poisonous gas, at a temperature of 100 degrees. Sore 
throat is the natural, inevitable result of such unnatural breathing. 
The minister breaks down, while the lawyer, standing up, har- 
rangues a jury ten hours a day for ten days and grows fat in flesh 
and fee. The stump orator speaks a hundred days in all kinds of 
weather, in-doors and out, four to six hours a day. Actors and elo- 
cutionists follow their profession for years — for a life time — and do 
not break down. Prof. Churchill, of Andover, Mass., the best elocu- 
tionist in the country, is quite portly. We knew him when a young 
man. He was slim and not strong and hearty — net weight now 215 
pounds avoirdupois. He has a deep, rich voice under perfect control. 
Mrs. Scott Siddons has given readings for years, has traveled in all 
countries and climes, reading in ill-ventilated rooms, hot and cold, 
under gaslights or tallow candles, yet she keeps her voice in nice trim. 
The great vocalists, singing thirty or forty weeks in a year, maintain 
their voices remarkably. Why is it that ministers break down speak- 
ing two hours a week, one hour at a time? The whole secret is 



KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 63 

in not knowing how to control their breathing and to use their vocal 
organs properly. Singing or speaking in a perfectly natural manner, 
as nature designed the organs for use, is the most health-giving ex- 
ercise known. Persons who are consumptive, with weak lungs and 
feminine voices, have been cured, and become healthy, hearty and 
rugged. It is an exploded idea that singing and speaking conduces 
to lung diseases and consumption. The entire system depends on 
the lung power. If that is weak the system is weak, and if strong, 
a healthy system is found. Remember and 'practice daily the rules 
for the development of lung power ; it is the working capital of the 
system, and success in any undertaking depends upon having a per- 
fect machine to do the work. Your body is the machine and your 
lungs are the most prominent and all-important mechanism of the 
system. When they fail to do their work well, the machine fails of 
doing good work. 

ADVICE. 

"Take the open air, 

The more you take the better; 
Follow Nature's laws 

To the very letter. 
Let the doctors go 

To the Bay of Biscay; 
Let alone the gin, 

The brandy^and the whisky. 
Freely exercise, 

Keep your spirits cheerful; 
Let no dread of sickness 

Make you ever fearful. 
Eat the simplest food, 

Drink the pure, cold water, 
Then you will be well, 

Or at least you oughter." 

—Anonymous. 



HABITS. 

The repeating of certain 'movements or doing certain acts over 
and over again an indefinite number of times, forms a habit. If we 
change night into day, we cannot sleep at night. If we accustom 
ourselves to eating at certain intervals, we shall feel the cravings of 
appetite at such intervals. The man who takes his glass of " bitters " 
regularly becomes miserable if he is debarred from his accustomed 
glass. He has formed a habit that will be a prompter every time 
the clock strikes the hour. At first it has no force and no control 
over him, but often repeated, it accumulates power. One link is 
easily forged in the chain of habit, and by-and-by the chain has many 
links and it coils around him noiselessly, and before he is aware of 
it his feet are fast in the fetters. To break away from it is almost an 
impossibility. The habit of drink takes hold of its victim with a 
death-like grip. Like the boa-constrictor, it gradually coils itself 
around its victim, growing tighter at every round, and holding him 
in a vice-like grasp. 

A HORRIBLE DEATH. 

A few months ago in a foreign city, an exhibition was given by a 
snake charmer One part of the performance was to allow the 
snake to coil around the charmer's body. The snake coiled around 
as usual, and then began to tighten up the coils. The man screamed 
in agony ; the spectators clapped their hands and cheered, thinking 
it was but a part of the sport ; but when the poor man's tongue was 
forced out of his mouth and his eyeballs from their sockets, and the 
dull cracking of his bones was heard as they were being broken 
and crushed, then did they realize that it was the death grip of the 
snake. Once too often had the charmer fooled with his snakeship- 
Too late he realized the power of his pet and his terrible heartless- 
ness, his relentless fury when called into action. 

We remember well a man who came to our city poor, but who, by 
hard work and careful saving of his earnings, acquired considerable 
property. He had a good situation, one that he could have held 
for many years at a good salary. The habit of drink had been 
formed, and after a while he began to feel its power. He tried to 



KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 65 

break off. For a short time he succeeded, but only to be more firmly 
bound down to it. He tried to break its bonds. He begged friends 
to go along with him who did not drink, when he knew he had no 
power to withstand the temptation alone. " If I go with those fel- 
lows they will drink me to death." When at last he found that no 
earthly power could save him, he wept like a child. Too late he re- 
alized he was in the coils of the demon that would never slacken its 
hold when once within its grasp; on the other hand it was constantly 
tightening up its coils for the final conflict, which is sure to come 
at last. Every bad habit is a foe that is armed to the very teeth, 
to conquer and overcome which requires a power more than human. 

FILTHY HABITS. 

Filthy habits conduce to a great amount of sickness. No one 
should sleep in an article of clothing worn through the day. We 
have heard of people who put on a shirt, and wore it until it was 
worn out. Another habit is not to respond to the calls of nature 
daily — in plain language — are too lazy to visit a privy. But nature 
is not to be cheated. The faeces are taken up by the system to poi- 
son the blood. The blood revolts and throws it upon the skin, and 
when you see a person's face all covered with little festering sores, 
full of matter, you can mark it down that that person has some low, 
filthy and disgusting habits. If you want the piles you can have 
them. If there is anything more disgusting and sickening, it is to 
be brought in contact with one of these people. The aroma of 
skunks would be a relief and relish better. Would that they could 
smell themselves for once. A young lady was recently made deathly 
sick by a young man of this class, who breathed in her face at a 
party. She turned from him and went home quite ill and was sick 
with fever for weeks in consequence. We sometimes are seated in 
church beside a person whose clothing is loaded down and reek- 
ing with a stench worse than a slaughter house, if that is possible. 
Clothing as well as the person must be ventilated, purified by expo- 
sure to the air and sunlight, the greatest of all deodorizers. Some 
housekeepers throw open their beds and windows in the morning ; 
others make up the beds early in the day all reeking with the 
sickly emanations from the body, to keep it in, to become a deadly 
poison to the sleeper. 
5 



66 KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 

GOOD MANNEBS. 

Pleasant address, respectful attention to every one rich or poor, 
high or low, is what wins. A sour, gruff, surly answer to questions 
asked, never pays and never will. A pleasant "Yes, sir," or "No, 
sir," goes farther than most young men think. Acting out the boor 
may be a natural trait of character, but it don't win. 

At the old Lindell House in St. Louis, a gentleman out of health 
stopped a few weeks. The table girl who waited on him took special 
pains to get what would be relished best by the sick man. Most 
waiters avoid invalids and do not care to wait on them. She had "a 
sympathetic nature, and it showed itself whenever there was' an op- 
portunity. The sick man left the hotel and about a year after there 
came a draft to the table girl of three thousand dollars. The man 
was dead but her name was not forgotten in the will. It pays to do 
well. It pays to be civil. 

A young lad, a bootblack in the streets of New York, obtained a 
position in a bank by his pleasant "Yes, sir," "No, sir," to every- 
body. It made him president of the bank. " I don't know," " Don't 
care," "None of my business," always pays, " over the left," Many 
a boy has been lifted out of poverty to affluence in the end, by his 
gentlemanly manners in his boyhood days. 

DRESS. 

The style and neatness of one's attire have much to do with one's 
success in any respectable calling. A young man who is careless of 
his personal appearance, wearing illy-fitting garments, boots slouchy 
and run down at the heels, a hat as illy becoming, stands a very 
poor chance of securing a first class situation. It is the dress that 
in a degree is an index of the man — i. e. makes the first impression 
on a stranger. It is not the quality, neither is it the costliness of 
the suit, but the neatness and care that is noticed in the personal at- 
tire at the very approach. No merchant will hire a clerk who is de- 
void of taste and that pride which permits himself to neglect his 
personal appearance. It is a fact that the world at large judge of a 
person much by his dress and not by his accomplishments. If a 
man has made his fortune and retired from business and prefers to 
dress like a boor to the disgust of his friends and in violation of 



KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 67 

the rules of etiquette, of course lie has a right to do so, but no gen- 
tleman will ignore the good will of the community in which he re- 
sides by wearing outlandish or slovenly apparel. 

No young man can afford to neglect his wardrobe. If he prefers 
to go carelessly attired, swaggering along, he had better go to some 
coal mine under ground, and stay there forever, for he never can se- 
cure a first class situation above. 

Every one should dress according to his business, and should be 
proud to wear the insignia of his trade or profession. A brick-layer 
or a hod-carrier will not look well in a minister's garb, neither will 
a minister look well in a hod-carrier's suit. There is an appropriate- 
ness in dressing to the place you occupy. A dandy in broadcloth, 
kid gloves and stovepipe hat wouldn't stand much of a chance to 
engage himself to a farmer; neither would a farmer's boy be eligi- 
ble to a situation in a fashionable dry goods store, dressed in his field 
suit. Although dress plays an important part in aiding a young man 
to secure a situation, yet it requires superior qualifications to be able 
to hold one after it is obtained. It is economy for every young man 
to dress well; it is a recommendation to good society; it is a step- 
ping stone to a higher position, which means, financially, a better 
salary. It pays to dress well. 



HOW TO DESERVE SUCCESS. 

POLITENESS. 

"True politeness is the poor man's capital." 

No accomplishment will atone tor the want of genuine politeness. 
Affable and courteous manners always win. Many a young man has 
won his way to success by uniform politeness to everybody. Snob- 
bishness don't pay and never will. This dropping on one's knees to 
aristocracy, and falling back on one's dignity to ordinary people, is 
an exhibition of the absolute want of genuine politeness. It is a 
virtue that young men should cultivate constantly, for they never 
can tell whose friends they may or may not insult if they disregard 
this injunction. They are liable to be caught as were some students 
of an eastern college. 

President Nott, of Union College, found out that the boys were 
going to rob his hen roost, and so laid watch for them. They came 
and one of them climbed up and pulled the chickens down for his 
comrades to wring their necks. As he passed them down, he named 
them after the president's daughters, thus : " This is Mary Ann ; this 
is Dolly; this is Kate," etc. At this juncture the old doctor made a 
noise, and the students fled, leaving the chickens on the ground. 
The following morning each one had a polite invitation to dine the 
next day with the president's family. The chickens had been nicely 
dressed, and the doctor asked one of the young men whether he 
would take a piece of "Mary Ann," or "Dolly." The shot went 
home and the students didn't hanker for chicken just then. 

TWO WAYS OF DOING THE SAME THING. 

A young man entered a bank as teller on a small salary. His 
gentlemanly manners and true politeness made him very popular. 
His salary was increased from year to year. A rival bank desired 
his services at a higher salary and he changed counters when his 
year was up. A third bank also coveted his services at a still high- 
er salary with an offer of " three thousand dollars a year." True 
merit is always at a premium. 

" Worth makes the man, the want of it the fellow."— Pope. 



KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 69 

Another young man stood behind the same counter where the first 
young man began his career. He put on many airs. It seemed to be 
mortifying to his aristocratic notions to be obliged to wait on ordi- 
nary customers. A civil answer was not always given. Nearly 
every one was treated with the most haughty and heartless indiffer- 
ence. When a check was presented for payment, the currency would 
be thrown out over the counter as though it was infected with the 
small pox, and with an air that spoke louder than words to the re- 
cipient, "Take it and clear out." Sometimes a customer could not 
make his currency " tally." " It is right, sir," replies the teller. De- 
positors' accounts sometimes fell short but there was never a surplus 
with him. When the days' balance was made up the answer was 
sure to come: "You were mistaken; your count was wrong." Af- 
ter a time the bank directors have numerous complaints made to 
them, and depositors are withdrawing their balances and placing 
them elsewhere. The bank is losing money by a teller who acts the 
boor; and finally a polite intimation is given the young man to hand 
in his resignation, and that it will be accepted without notice. 
The morning papers announce his resignation and that he intends 
to go into business for himself "out West." Young men of that 
stamp are just fitted to be muleteers — to drive jackasses and dwell 
with the brutes all their days in some underground mine. 

Success can never be won where a young man is above his busi- 
ness and treats with the utmost contempt those with whom he must 
have daily business transactions. Monied men are not beggars or 
town paupers, and will not do business with an uncivil bank official, 
be he teller or president. 

HOTEL CLERK. 

Thirty years ago there was a clerk at a Fitchburg, Massachusetts, 
hotel, named E isterbrook, who for politeness probabty never had 
his equal. At least, in our travel in eighteen states of the Union, we 
never met one. He was a perfect gentleman to every guest, rich or 
poor, in broadcloth or homespun. The moment you stepped into 
the office, he was ready to greet you with a most cordial welcome; 
an only brother could not have done more. All wants were antici- 
pated with such a genuine brotherly kindness, that one felt that he 
was in the house of his best friend. At the depot on the arrival of 



70 KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 

trains, his quiet and gentlemanly approach to a stranger was so at- 
tractive that one was sure to accept a seat in his coach. No catching 
hold of your satchel and importuning you with all the fierceness of 
a starving hyena. No howling, no swearing at runners of other ho- 
tels. It was the perfect gentleman everywhere and all the time. 
When he secured a customer he had a life lease on him. It paid 
the hotel proprietors, and paid its guests with genuine satisfaction 
that they had been well cared for, and if they never traveled that 
way again they advertised the hous f i wherever they journeyed. 

PLEASE YOUR EMPLOYERS. 

The reason so many fail of success is because they are not willing 
to give their employers all their time. They will cut off at both ends 
and out of the middle. Always tardy, always in haste to quit ten or 
fifteen minutes before time. A young man who cheats his employer 
out of his rights, cheats himself in the end. If there is an easy job 
to be done he never will get it. If a man is to be sent out 500 or 
1,000 miles to set up a machine, or on a collecting tour, he will not 
be the man to go. If a foreman is wanted, he never will be recom- 
mended for any better position, and it serves him right. He is not 
worthy of any place when he cheats nis employer every day in the 
year, and every time he draws his wages takes more than he has 
earned. Nothing but a selfish interest controls his entire being. 

It is the duty and it is for the interest of every man to devote his 
entire energies to the interest of his employer. Why, we would 
stand on one foot or on our head, if necessary, to advance the inter- 
est of our employer. When we could not do it we would quit. 
This whining and growling all the time is mean, contemptible. It 
exhibits a low, selfish, ill-bred disposition. They are a class who 
claim that the world owes them a living ; and pray for what ? Bal- 
ance up your accounts ; show your figures. If the world owes you 
anything more than a decent burial, our mathematical computa- 
tions are wrong. A young man of that stamp would see his employ- 
er's property go to destruction, burn up, before he would go ten steps 
out of the way to save it. A man of this disposition cannot but 
feel mean all the time. Work goes hard with him. A man that 
don't like the business of his employer is an unprofitable man to 
have at any price. It is the out-cropping of communism, only wait- 



KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 71 

ing for reinforcements to usurp power, to disregard law and order, 
and to break down every safeguard to society. To enjoy anything 
you must fall in love with it, else it will be irksome, tedious. It 
wears upon the system like a machine without oil. A happy, jovial 
disposition makes hard work easy, light and devoid of friction. 

MAKE YOUR EMPLOYER'S BUSINESS YOURS. 

To win a reputation that is worth more than money, every young 
ma^ should make himself thoroughly acquainted with his employ- 
er's business. He should know it in all its details, and take as much 
interest in it as though it was his own ; devote his whole time and 
talents to help make the business pay every dollar possible. You 
may have a hard place. Your employer may not fully appreciate 
the full value of your services, but you are not a slave. There are 
other places to fill. Others will see your devotion to your employer 
and will seek to obtain your services at a greatly advanced salary. 
Unrewarded talent will not long remain uncompensated. It cannot 
be concealed. You might as w T ell hold your hat before your eyes 
and think you had shut out the noon-day sun. Every hour of faith- 
ful devotion to your employer's business is making capital for you, 
and is better than money deposited in banks. 

A young man never knows who may be watching him. Business 
men have keen sight. They recognize talent wherever it is seen. 
Changes are constantly going on. A salesman retires ; another must 
fill the vacancy. Who shall it be ? A hundred, five hundred, apply 
and only one is wanted. The proprietors have been watching a 
young man in some other establishment for six months. They 
have had his name in a memorandum for that length of time, and, 
as occasion gave them opportunities, they have watched his business 
tact and the hold he has on customers. They employ others to 
44 sound him." His habits are looked into, to know where and how 
he spends his evenings; where he is on Sundays, and how about his 
vacations ; are they frequent ; and last but not least, who are his as. 
sociates ? These are all read up. The records are compared and 
they show : First, he is prompt, always on hand ; second, his em- 
ployer's business is made his own ; third, customers will not buy of 
any one else if they can help it ; fourth, his habits are correct ; don't 
smoke, chew or drink ; never was seen at a theatre ; don't play cards 



12 KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 

or billiards ; is active in the Young Men's Christian Association ; 
record, A No. 1, extra. It is voted to secure his services if he can 
be honorably released from his present situation. Salary is a sec- 
ondary consideration. The bookkeeper is instructed to drop him a 
note asking him to call at the counting room at 8 p. m., which reads 
as follows : 

"A. B. &Co. 

"Importers of Silks, English, French and German Cloths, 

"Pearl Street. 

"Boston, December 1, 1879. 
"Mr. Henry Gra^nderson— Dear Sir:— If convenient, weshonid be pleased 
to have you call after business hours at our counting room— say 8 p. m. Strictly 
confidential. Yours. A. B. & CO M 

Promptly at the hour named, Mr. Granderson is at the counting 
room of A. B. &. Co. He is told that their head salesman will leave 
on the first of January, 1880, and they need a man to fill his place. 
That although they have hundreds of applicants they are satisfied he 
is the man they want, and if he is situated so that he can make the 
change without compromising himself, they are ready to engage 
him. As far as salary is concerned, they will make it satisfactory 
to him. Mr. G. replies that his year will be up in a few days, and 
he has not said anything to his firm or they to him on the subject; 
he will confer with them at once, and see them again. Three days 
later Mr. G. is at A. B. & Co.'s office and informs them that his 
firm has proposed to double his salary, which has been $5,000 for the 
last year, rather than to have him leave. A. B. & Co. say, " Please 
call to-morrow morning at ten o'clock." Promptly at the moment 
Mr. G. is on hand. He is asked to step into the private office. A. 
B. & Co. say that they have concluded to make him a proposition 
to become one of the firm. He might consider his interest to be 
$10,000 paid up capital, and if he wish to add to that sum he could 
do so. Mr. G.'s name was added to the firm. This may look a little 
overdrawn, but it is all literally true ; nothing but the names are 
fictitious. 

PACIFIC MILLS, LAWRENCE, MASSACHUSETTS. 

When this large and wealthy corporation was ready to commence 
business, at a directors' meeting the question came up as to where 
to find an agent to take charge of the mills, and it was suggested 



KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 73 

that each one should take special pains to find a suitable man for the 
place. At the next meeting every one of the directors had found a 
man who was just fitted for the place, and one of the most remark- 
able coincidences was that the man that each one felt specially 
proud to name, all the others had the same identical name. So it 
was made unanimous. The next question was, could he be secured. 
He was proprietor of a small mill and was well situated. A com- 
mittee was delegated to engage him on the best terms possible, but 
to secure him. They went to his place and asked him to name 
his terms. He did so: to pay so much for his m ill, a round price, 
$10,000 cash bonus over the price for the mill, and a salary of $10,000 
a year. They closed the contract at his terms at once, and for ten 
years he drew his salary of $ 10,000 a year. Were it necessary, and 
had we space, we could multiply similar cases. There are hundreds 
of men who are receiving a better salary than the President of the 
United States receives. There are a great many men who receive a 
thousand dollars a month ; yes, and there are millions who do not 
receive over $15 a month and board. Why the difference ? 

PUT ON THE APPEARANCE OF BUSINESS. 

There is nothing like being always busy, doing something. Sit- 
ting down and waiting for customers is no way to build up a trade. 
People prefer to go into a store where the proprietor is so full of ac- 
tivity that it seems almost impossible for him to stop to wait on 
customers. It gives an impression of a live man and plenty to do. 
No one cares to go the second time where all is still as a graveyard, 
and the proprietor looking as if his last day had come, and moving 
about with a face as long as a yardstick, with a voice as doleful as 
though he had been singing, " Hark from the tombs," for a month. 
To a lady who has the least horror for ghosts, such conduct would 
make her stop as short as possible, and never go there again. 

We knew a young physician who opened an office in a country 
village, and every day he would drive out ten or fifteen miles into 
the country at a rapid rate, and when he came back to the village 
his horse would be white with foam. Some days he would drive 
two horses, one in the forenoon and a fresh one in the afternoon. 
Everybody said, " What a big practice our new doctor has." There 
was not a farmer within a radius of twenty miles who didn't know the 



74 KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 

iwiv doctor. The result was that he did get a large practice but for 
the first three months he didnH have a patient. He put on the appear- 
ance of business, and he secured what he sought after. 

A few years ago a young man, a mason by trade, went to Boston to 
seek employment. For two weeks he did nothing but walk the 
streets dressed in his best Sunday suit, and failed to find any one 
who wanted his services. He concluded to change his procedure 
and to put on the " appearance of business." So he bought a pail 
and a whitewash brush, and put on his working suit, well ornament- 
ed with whitewash and started out early the next morning to adver- 
tise his profession as a " whitener." He went into the most fashion- 
able portion of the city, the residences of the merchant princes, and 
along the streets at a rapid pace, as though he had a big job on his 
hands and was in a great hurry to be at the work. He had not pro- 
ceeded far before a lady on the opposite side of the street espied him 
and raising her window called to him to come across as she wanted 
to speak to him. He crossed over and she asked him if he would 
stop and whiten some ceilings for her. " No, I am too busy to-day, 
but I will come to-morrow," he replied. She told him to come, and 
away he went on his advertising tramp for the day. Before night 
he had engaged all the work he wanted ; and from that day until he 
made enough to retire from business, he didn't have to tramp the 
streets of Boston for work. 

Young man there is nothing like lk putting on the appearance of 
business," — that is if you mean business. The public always want 
to employ the busy man. They invariably have suspicions of a mem 
who has nothing to do. And well they may. 

don't be above your business. 

Some young men fail because they have so exalted notions as to 
what they think is proper or becoming. This class, when clerks, 
are too proud to carry a bundle of any kind, and must hire an ex- 
press or porter to carry a yard of muslin. 

A young man purchased a turkey in Quincy Market, Boston, and 
looked for a boy to carry it home for him. Seeing no boy near, he 
called out to an elderly man standing near by, " Here, old man," 
said he, " take this turkey home for me." The old man took the 
turkey under his arm and followed the young man to his residence, 



KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 75 

received a quarter for his service, and as he turned to leave said, 
u When you have any more errands to do send for Billy Grey." If 
the young man had carried the turkey home himself, it would have 
tasted all the better, for the old man was none other than Billy Grey 
himself, the richest man in Boston. 

The late Amos Lawrence, one of Boston's most successful mer- 
chants — a millionaire — when a clerk in a dry goods store, sold a 
bill of goods, promising to have them delivered in Charlestown by 
12 o'clock M. The porter, who was to take them over, failing to re- 
turn as soon as was expected, young Lawrence loaded the goods on a 
wheelbarrow and trundled them over the long bridge through the 
streets thronged with ladies and gentlemen, and had them there on 
time. Not one clerk in a thousand would have been seen following 
a wheelbarrow, even if their fortunes were at stake. 

A snobbish young man on his way to dinner, stopped at a grocery 
store, purchased a little tin box of ground mustard, less than a 
pound in weight, and asked to have it sent home, although he was 
going directly there. A large four-horse truck (tandem) was loaded 
with the box of mustard, with as much show as if it had been a 
hogshead of molasses. The driver drove up to the front door of 
the young man's residence, backed his truck up to the sidewalk, 
and rolled off the little box of mustard, rung the door bell, called 
the young gentleman to the door, delivered the mustard and charged 
&l% cents for the job. The display in front of his residence did 
not add to his happiness in the least for his loving neighbors enjoyed 
the show better than a first class circus parade. It did not require 
any mustard poultice to warm up his wounded pride that day. It 
w T as a good lesson to his snobbish aristocratic notions. These in- 
stances are but samples of thousands of exhibitions of mock aris- 
tocracy occurring every day in the year. 

CHOICE OF BOARDING HOUSES. 

Select the best private family accessible where culture and refine- 
ment are prized above show, where the choicest books and papers 
and music are thought more of than theatres, parties and gossip. 
Better be at the foot of the table than at the head every time. De- 
velopment comes by contact with superior minds, not inferior. One 
elevates, exalts; the other degenerates — letting down one's self to a 



76 KENT '8 NEW COMMENTARY. 

lower level. Do not to save a dollar a week take board at a second 
class house. You can't afford it. Economise in everything else, 
rather than to associate with a class devoid of all ambition for im- 
provement. The society of refined young ladies will improve any 
young man. It will be a good school to those who may not have 
had the advantages of a liberal education. The case of a young 
man who took his intended home to his father's to tea, and when 
they were seated at the table, said to her: " Take hold and help your- 
self, we don't nave much manners here," was an example of board- 
ing house etiquette generally. 

A young man cannot be too particular about the society he moves 
in. The old saying still holds good that " a man is known by the 
company he keeps." Many a young man has lost golden opportuni- 
ties unknown to himself, simply by being seen in questionable 
company. " Show me his friends, his associates, and I will tell the 
character of a young man whose voice I never have heard," is true 
almost to the letter. 



HOW TO ENSURE SUCCESS. 

PLUCK. 

Pluck is everything. You may just as well be contented and satis- 
fied to remain where you are as to expect to meet with any degree 
of success in any business you may engage in, unless you are pos- 
sessed with an abundance of this essential element. It is a fast age. 
Everything goes with lightning rapidity. Time and distance are 
annihilated and to win success one must come to time, or he will be 
ruled out. Some people, however, are so far in the rear that they 
would not be missed if they should drop out of existence at any 
time. It is an astonishing as well as indisputable fact, that a great 
majority of the people of our own country never make an}' mark in 
the world. They live and die as the beasts, like so many sheep and 
cattle. The only force they exert, distinguishing one over another, 
is animal. So many " horse power," weighed by the same scale as a 
steam engine or a turbine wheel is weighed to find its power. 



KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 77 

A SERMON IN A PARAGRAPH. 

President Porter, of Yale, gave the following advice to the stu- 
dents of that institution, the other day : • 

" Young men, you are the architects of your own fortunes. Rely 
on your own strength of body and soul. Take for your star self- 
reliance. Inscribe on your banner, ' Luck is a fool, Pluck is a hero.' 
Don't take too much advice — keep at your helm and steer your own 
ship, and remember that the great art of commanding is to take a 
fair share of the work. Think well of youself. Strike out. Assume 
your own position. Put potatoes in a cart over a rough road, and 
the small ones go to the bottom. Rise above the envious and jeal- 
ous. Fire above the mark j^ou intend to hit. Energy, invincible 
determination, with a right motive, are the levers that move the 
world. Don't drink. Don't chew. Don't smoke. Don't swear. 
Don't deceive. Don't marry until you can support a wife. Be in 
earnest. Be self-reliant. Be generous. Be civil. Read the papers. 
Advertise your business. Make money and do good with it. Love 
your God and fellow-men. Love truth and virtue. Love your coun- 
try and obey its laws." 

WAITING FOR THE ELEVATOR. 

Some young men are devoid of the least ambition to work for 
their own advancement. They may have some fancied aspirations, 
perhaps to occupy respectable positions in the community in which 
they live ; wishing for some prominent place, a little above their 
associates, while they do not exercise the least ambition to work 
their way there. It reminds us of the steam elevators used in all 
first class hotels, by which the guests are carried to their rooms- 
They have nothing to do but to step in and take a seat in a little, ele, 
gantiy furnished room, and in a few seconds they are up to the top 
story. No long flight of winding staircases to climb, when tired 
and weary. It is one of the greatest luxuries of modern hotel life. 
In a great rush sometimes one has to wait a few moments for the 
elevator before he can ascend. Thousands of young men to-day are 
waiting for an elevator, one that will carry them right up to the 
highest pinnacle of their lofty ambition. In vain they may wait 
for it. If ever they reach a respectable standing in any community 



78 . KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 

it will be by the old way of climbing- up step by step. No patent 
elevator has yet been invented or ever will be that will lift one up 
any other way than by his own individual efforts. Every one must 
construct his own elevator and run it by his own inherent motive 
power — elevate himself — or he will never rise to any position wor- 
thy of the noble powers nature has endowed him with. If you are 
born a prince of royal blood, in due time, if you live, you will reach 
the throne, wear the crown and sway the sceptre over lo\ r al subjects, 
bowing to your nod ; but that will not happen on this continent. 
My advice to every young man is to spend no time in tracing back 
your pedigree, as it is a great waste of time, for if of royal lin- 
eage, you will not be lost sight of, for "blood will tell." You will 
be found out and in due time elevated to the throne you were born 
to sit upon. So if you are satisfied that such is not your destiny do 
not wait for the elevator, it never will come down to carry you up. 
Your only chance is the old staircase, and the sooner you satisfy 
yourself of the fact and commence climbing step by step, the better, 
making every step count one step higher than the last, and if you 
can pass your competitors on the up grade, do it. Emulation is a 
noble quality of the soul and should be exercised continually. 

A word of caution : Do not become too greatly elated and lose 
your balance. Be sure of your footing, go strong, placing every 
step you take firmly on the treads. Although the staircase is very 
old it will be found just as firm and secure as it was when the first 
traveler passed up. Do not wait then for an elevator. We often 
hear young men telling of their future prospects; laying back on 
their oars at ease ; building air castles on the w T ings of the wind to 
vanish with the breath that inflates them. They are waiting for an 
elevator. 

A young man says, " My father is a candidate for sheriff, and if 
elected I am to be his deputy." He is waiting for the elevator. An- 
other says, " When my old uncle is dead, I shall come into posses- 
sion of a fortune, enough to keep me without any business to bother 
my head about." He is only waiting for his elevator. Thousands of 
young men have in store for themselves u great expectations," of 
fortune or position — all are waiting for the elevator. Just where or 
how it is to come they have not the faintest conception. They an- 
ticipate that some motive power will be brought into requisition 



KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 79 

which will just lift them right up to the very places they have 
selected as congenial to their tastes and ambition ; a class that is 
always hanging around the foot of the staircases waiting for the 
elevator that never comes down to take them up. 

BURNED HIS SHIP — BLEW UP THE BRIDGE. 

We read of the general who after landing his troops in the ene- 
my's country, blew up his ships so that his men might know there 
was no going back with him ; it was light or die. So it was with 
the general who burned the bridges behind him. When an army 
knows all retreat is cut off it will fight. Like the man teaching a 
swimming school — he threw his boys overboard and told them to 
u strike out," and they had to do so or drown. In battle the raw re- 
cruits are often put in the front and the old veterans in the rear to 
prevent a hasty retreat or a panic. If every young man was har- 
nessed where he could not get away, and "must pump or drown," 
they would dazzle the world by their brilliant achievements. 

DO NOT PROCRASTINATE. 

This putting off until to-morrow what should be done to-day, is 
but putting off the main chance, to be defeated at last. 

A general in the British army who was asked when he would be 
ready to sail for India, replied, "Now;" and he won the title of 
" Marshall Forward." General Grant won his battles by being al- 
ways ready to move at once and with alacrity at the right time. " I 
propose to move on your works immediately," was what gained the 
battle. This timidity, this seeing a bear or lion in the way is fatal 
to any man's success. If you once commence to dodge or go around 
the first little obstacle that confronts you, you will do so the next and 
so on. How many young men say on New Year's clay, u I am go- 
ing to turn over a new leaf. I am going to strike out," but find 
when the year comes around that they didn't turn over the leaf and 
did not strike out. The majority of men fall into a rut and remain 
in it until they die. A year only counts one, and don't count any- 
thing else. They come in on the same track they went out on. 
Unlike the old man's dog that came in " a little ahead of the fox." 



THE BATTLE OF LIFE. 



THE CONFLICT IS YOURS, ARE YOU READY FOR THE BATTLE. 

It will never do for a young man to sit down and wait for some- 
thing to turn up ; he must turn up something for himself. If he 
expects any one to neglect his own affairs to work for him individ- 
ually, personally, he will be greatly mistaken. Each one has a 
battle of his own on hand to fight, and if he does not strip himself 
for the conflict he will be ingloriously "laid out," defeated, over- 
come, annihilated. It is a free fight and every one has a chance for 
himself. If he sits down and waits for assistance, or for some one 
to fight the battle for him, his chances for winning success will be 
lost, and he will be lodged in a ditch from which he never can extri- 
cate himself. 

This waiting for " Blucher," or some one else, to come to your aid 
is simply to be vanquished while you are waiting. Waiting for 
some rich relative, some old aunt or uncle, to die, strikes the death 
knell for your opportunities — tolling the bell for your own funeral, 
and when you are ready for burial mourners will be few. If you 
succumb to the first little obstacle that confronts you, the next will 
be more formidable and so on ad infinitum. To lie down and give 
up to the slightest opposition is fatal to your success in anything 
you undertake. 

OPPOSITION. 

Every young man, if he expects to rise, must have opposition. 
The kite will not go up in a calm or remain up when it is calm. A 
vessel cannot sail on a quiet sea — a dead calm. It is the storm that 
hastens the bark homeward. To develop power you must meet op- 
position. It is competition, opposition, that brings a man out. It 
avails nothing for a young man to be at the head of his class all the 
time. It is a positive damage to any student to be always the best 
one of his class. No stimulant to nerve him up to greater efforts. 
You must have opposition if you would excel 



KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY 81 

EVERY ONE MUST TAKE CARE OF HIS OWN HEAD. 

A lot of boys broke into a house where there was a quantity of 
powder stored in barrels. They ran up stairs and everywhere, while 
in their fun and frolic one boy below applied the match to the pow- 
der and sung out to those up stairs, " Every boy take care of his own 
head." 

A notorious fighter, when on his death bed, was asked by one of 
his sons why it was he never was whipped in all the fights and rows 
he had been engaged in. His answer was that " Whenever I saw a 
head I hit it." So to attain success you must hit every obstacle 
that stands in the way of your success, and hit it hard. No legiti- 
mate means should prevent your progress onward and upward. 

When one of Napoleon's marshals told him the Alps were in the 
way of his proposed campaign, he answered him with tremendous 
emphasis: "There are no Alps." Mountains piled upon mountains, 
gorges, chasms or glaciers, however broad or deep or slippery, were 
but mole hills before his resistless, unconquerable ambition. No 
such word as fail was in his vocabulary. 

GENERAL ZACHARY TAYLOR. 

General Taylor won imperishable renown in the war with Mexico, 
and was designated, " The man who never knew when he was 
whipped." With all of his bull dog tenacity he ever kept on fight- 
ing. Propelled by his invincible spirit of never to surrender, never 
to give up, his army repeatedly cut to pieces and half lying dead on 
the battle field or hors de combat, he rallied his broken and shattered 
ranks to again charge the enemy with redoubled fury. Although 
every advantage was with the Mexicans, yet his invincible spirit in- 
cited his gallant soldiers with a dash and daring that carried dismay 
into the very ranks of the enemy, and sweeping down upon them 
with terrific impetuosity, no force was left on the battle field 
to oppose him. The enemy had fled like chaff before a whirlwind. 
General Taylor won the sobriquet that will ever attach to his name, 
never to be forgotten — "Hough and Ready," — the soldier who 
" never knew when he was whipped." That unconquerable spirit 
made him the man he was, the gallant soldier of his time, and made 
him the twelfth president of the United States. Such is the stuff 
6 



82 KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 

that heroes are made of. No milk and water composition in the men 
who make their mark in the world. They do not spend their best 
days lying around street corners and saloons, waiting for something 
to turn up. Far from it. They were preparing for the fight years 
before the battle was begun, and that was what made them victorious 
when the crisis came. 

ON THE VOYAGE — EACH ONE HIS OWN PILOT. 

Launched on the voyage of life, every young man eventually ar- 
rives at a point where his little bark must be cut loose from pilotage, 
and the guiding hand of parental care be withdrawn. Each returning 
wave will carry him still farther away, and if he would reach the 
desired port in safety, he must " paddle his own canoe." ISTo one 
can or will paddle it for him, and the sooner he becomes aware of 
this fact the better. However much he may dread its hardships and 
dangers, or however weary he becomes, there is no escape from it, 
there is no going ashore. Inexorable fate compels every one to make 
the voyage. Success or failure rests with each voyager. Already he 
is adrift. He is in the current, ever increasing as it bears him far- 
ther and farther out to where the billows run the highest and storms 
rage the fiercest. The desired haven is up stream and the current is 
full of wrecks, stranded barks, sweeping past, greatly increasing 
the danger. The trip affords no quiet harbor, no lee shore, no an- 
chorage ground, no stopping place along the way for rest, no place 
for the current to slacken its swiftness. It never slackens — it is al- 
ways rapid, ever increasing as the years speed along. There can be 
no resting on the oars. Every lost stroke imperils the safety of the 
voyage. Only by constant and vigorous pulling at the oars can the 
rushing current be overcome. Drop the oars or lie down at ease and 
the current sweeps the bark downward, and the longer the rest the 
swifter it goes with ever accelerating speed. Every moment it rap- 
idly nears the whirpool, the vortex. If once caught by the boiling 
surges your fate is sealed. A leap, a plunge, and you are engulfed 
in an abyss from which there is no rescue — no escape. The vovage 
is up — it's lost. " Oh ! the wrecks along the shore ! " It is lined with 
the stranded barks. Would you look at them? Visit the jails, 
State prisons, lunatic asylums, the mad houses; they are there. 
Listen to the sad tale they tell, and the songs they sing. The refrain 



KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY 8:1 

is but the wail of thousands, of millions; of fortunes lost, of hopes 
blasted, or disappointed ambitions and of hopeless despair over the 
failure of a voyage that cannot be repeated. Daily the tale is told, 
the song is sung in doleful strains like funeral marches to the dead. 
Do you want to see the barks that are floating down stream. They 
are everywhere. Young men loafing on the street corners are float- 
ing. Young men hanging around saloons, playing cards for the 
drinks, are floating down stream. Young men wasting their pre- 
cious time in idleness are floating down stream. Young men who 
neglect all cultivation of their intellectual talents are floating down 
stream. Young men who squander all their earnings, saving noth- 
ing, are floating dow r n stream, A dangerous class in any commun- 
ity. Property, life, are nothing to them. 

WHAT EVERY YOUNG MAN MUST HAVE. 

Every young man must have a chart, a compass and an anchor 
with a cable that will not part. Hundreds of young men start out 
having none of these pre-requisites. Going to sea without a compass 
is to be lost. Going to sea without a chart is foolhardiness. Going 
to sea without an anchor and a strong cable, is simply to be driven 
by every gale, to be dashed upon the rocks and to be lost. You 
must lay out on your chart in detail the way you wish to go. You 
must man the helm and hold it firm on the course against all com- 
bined forces. Never let go the helm. 

don't give up. 

The continued dropping of water will wear away the hardest 
stone. It is the repeated blows that break the rock. It is the last 
stroke of the pick that turns up the shining dust. Many a man has 
been right on the brink of a princely fortune and lost it for not strik- 
ing one blow more. When you take hold of an enterprise stick to 
it until you have tested it. Go to the end. It was the last shot that 
hit the magazine and blew up the enemy's works. Add one step 
more before you abandon the race. 

Governor Morton, of Massachusetts, was a candidate for sixteen 
successive years before he was chosen to the office, and at last was 
only elected by a majority of one vote. 



84 KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY 

PERSEVERANCE. 

One step and (hen another, 

And the longest walk is ended; 
One stitch and then another, 

And the largest rent is mended; 
One brick upon another, 

And the highest wall is made; 
One flake upon another, 

And the deepest snow is laid. 

So the little coral workers, 

By their slow and constant motion, 
Have built those pretty islands 

In the distant dark blue ocean, 
And the noblest undertakings 

Man's wisdom hath conceived, 
By oft-repeated effort 

Have been patiently achieved. 

Then do not look disheartened 

On the work you have to do, 
And say that such a mighty task 

You never can get through; 
But just endeavor day by day 

Another point to gain, 
And soon the mountain which you feared 

Will prove to be a plain. 

"Rome was not built in a day, 11 

The ancient proverb teaches, 
And nature by her trees and flowers, 

The same sweet sermon preaches. 
Think not of far off duties, 

But of duties which are near, 
And having once begun the work, 

Resolve to persevere. —Selected. 

A Davenport boy went to New York to solicit a position to travel 
for a wholesale house. He went five times to one establishment and 
every time he was told they did not want to engage him. He tried 
to prevail on them to allow him to make a trial trip. No, they 
would not do that. Finally he proposed to buy a small stock of 
goods. This was business. They were ready to sell. He went upon 
the road, sold out his stock, and made money. The firm saw that he 
"meant business," and they were ready to employ him to travel for 



KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY 85 

them. Now he is one of the firm and is worth considerable money. 
It was his persistence that won. Not one boy in a hundred would 
have had the courage to apply a second time after one refusal. 
Nothing like courage and faith when an object is to be accomplished. 
One of the partners of the house had only fourteen cents left when 
he reached New York to seek his fortune. 

Ninety per cent, of the best business men of New York and Bos- 
ton were born upon the farms of the country. A young man brought 
up to hard work on a farm, trained to the closest economy in his 
earlier years, has the power of endurance that a city boy does not 
possess, consequently he will make the best business man. 

HOW JOHN MORRISSEY WENT TO CONGRESS. 

John Morrissey, the notorious prize fighter, and keeper of gam- 
bling hells, when first married could not read or write. His wife 
taught him these accomplishments. In the day time she would 
study the lesson and at night teach it to him. The morning after 
his fight with Heenan, with his head all bandaged up, she made him 
sit up in bed and recite his lesson. He w r ould often get discouraged 
in studying fractions and the like, but she told him if he gave up he 
never would go to Congress. He asked if she meant what she said, 
and she told him she did ; so he would keep at the nightly lessons, 
and he did go to Congress. It shows what a man can do when he 
puts himself to the work. 

CATCHING THE TRAIN. 

We have seen a man start out to take a morning train. He would 
look at his watch and say, " Well I am a little late this morning, I 
guess I shall miss the train," and he goes moping along just as 
though he meant to miss it, He hears the wdiistle and then begins 
to quicken his pace. As the train nears the depot he runs lively, 
with all his might, and arrives at the depot just as the train moves 
out at the opposite end. All out of breath he exclaims, " That is 
just my luck. I expected I would miss it when I started." See the 
difference : His neighbor looks at his watch and says to his w T ife : 
" Only three minutes to train time ; I'll make it ; good bye ! " and the 
way he tears down street is a terror to small boys on the sidewalk, 



86 KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 

and he dashes into the street for fear of knocking down half a dozen 
people or being tripped np by them, and just as the train enters the 
depot he enters at the opposite end, and remarks to a friend that this is 
a little the quickest time he ever made ; " I told my wife I'd make it, 
and I am here." This man runs to w T in, the other runs to miss. 
Each had the same time and same distance to spau. 

Resolution is mighty wdien backed by an unconquerable will to 
carry it out. Resolution is powerless, worthless, when there is noth- 
ing to back it. It was at the starting place wdiere the race was de- 
cided. 

$10,000 lost! $10,000 won! 

The man who went on the first train bought the morning paper, 
and looking over the market reports found that nails had advanced 
seventy-five cents per keg. As soon as he reached his counting room, 
he withdrew from sale all the nails he had on hand. He sent out 
his confidential clerk to buy all the nails he could buy at "yester- 
day's prices." He drops into the store of the man that missed the 
morning train, buys his entire stock of nails to be delivered on call, 
and passes over a check for the same. The next train, three hours 
later, brings in the man that missed the first train. Clerks are busy, 
and a large pile of letters from correspondents require his first atten- 
tion. When lunch time arrives, he steps into the merchants' dining 
rooms, and while waiting to be served looks over the morning paper, 
reads the market reports and learns that nails have advaneed seventy- 
five cents per keg. Bolting his dinner hurriedly down he hurries 
back to his store to "mark up prices" on nails, and finds that his 
neighbor has bought him out at " yesterday's prices." He exclaims, 
'Must my luck; missing the first train, I have missed a clean profit 
of $10,000 on the stock of nails I had on hand last night." Luck ! 
There was no luck about it! It was the two minutes too late for the 
first train. Young man remember to take the first train. The first 
man made $10,000, the last man lost $10,000. 

HOW WE LEARNED TO PLAY THE ORGAN. 

Our home for twenty-one years was upon one ot the high hills of 
ISTew Hampshire. A farmer's boy, we knew nothing of the outside 
world, and much less of organs and pianos, and had never seen a 



KM NT'S NEW COM ME NT ART 87 

piano. When we were about thirty years of age, we conceived the 
idea that it would be a good investment to own a cabinet organ and 
know how r to play it. We were employed at the time as a salesman 
in the largest dry goods establishment in a flourishing manufactur- 
ing city in Massachusetts. The proprietor was very exacting. The 
store must be the first one opened in the morning and the last one to 
close at night. We could not move the first thing tow r ards shutting 
up until the city hall clock had struck the hour of nine. Then the 
goods outside were to be brought in and those displayed in the win 
dows removed, and the curtains hung over all the shelves, and the 
show T cases covered. The floor then had to be carefully and thor- 
oughly swept. We could not reach our boarding-place until after 
half-past nine o'clock any night. Occasionally on Saturday night 
the store was kept open until ten o'clock. 

It was winter ; we had no fire in our room and could not afford 
one. We sat dow r n to the organ, wearing hat and overcoat with col- 
lar turned up around our ears. The ivory keys and the air coming 
up beside them benumbed our fingers. By the time we read the 
notes for a "chord," and pressed the keys dowm and "sounded the 
chord," our fingers ached with pain. We would hold them over the 
lamp to "warm up." Then another chord would be "figured out," 
and "played." We practiced this way all winter. It was no easy 
task. We had hard w r ork before us, and stubborn opposition. The 
strongest kind of a combination, worse than a printer's union or any 
other union we have any knowledge of, w r as working against us. The 
battle was with our stubborn fingers ; they must be conquered or we 
must give up trying to learn to play the organ. It was a doubtful 
problem which would succeed. Our will was strong, and we wagect 
a constant w^ar with the enemy. They had had their ow r n way for 
thirty years, and proposed to have it forever. They were very har- 
monious in their movements; if one moved, they all moved in 
unison on the same line. We could not play good music in that 
way. The union movement must be overcome. It was will versus 
muscle, chords, ligaments and joints. The will w r as unconquerable. 
The aching and sw r ollen fingers show r ed how severely the battle raged 
and how terribly they suffered. To move them separately w r as the 
great thing to be accomplished. Too long had they grasped the 
plow handles and swung the axe to adjust themselves to an entirely 



88 RENTS NEW COMMENTARY. 

new business, to work independent of each other. Slowly, but not 
very gracefully they yielded. We had, however, excellent encour- 
agement, aside from our own gratification over our ability to "hold 
on " to a chord to the fullest extent allowable, when we were sure we 
had it. Also from the compliments by the boarders at the breakfast 
table, as to how T they laid awake all the time we were playing, listen- 
ing to the ravishing strains of music as they rose and swelled through 
the corridors of the house. They wondered whether we had the 
power of continuance ; and w T hether we would and could continue 
to bring out such harmonies ; surpassing Haydn, Mozart, and those 
great composers, for ever and ever. Well, we could not do it. For 
those w T ho had no ear for music, and could not distinguish the pealing 
notes of the organ from the cats that performed nightly in the back 
yard, we had supreme contempt. They never seemed to have any 
more love for our music than the solemn catawaulings outside. 
They preferred to sleep. We cannot now recall all the high compli- 
ments we were daily the recipient of; but if they slept they missed 
the greatest opportunity of their lives, and we ever had pity for 
them. Many of these compliments were of a so decided personal 
character that it would look too much for our modesty to have them 
appear in print. 

Several times we came near giving up in despair. Probably we 
should have done so had we not run across the following lines, which 
we cut out of a paper and pasted over one of our hardest lessons, 
and it sticks to that lesson to-day, and we now occasionally read them 
with great satisfaction : " The longer I live the more I am certain 
that the great difference between men, between the feeble and the 
powerful, the great and the insignificant, is energy — invincible deter- 
mination. A purpose once fixed, and then — death or victory. That 
quality will do anything that can be done in this w r orld; and no 
talents, no circumstances, no opportunities, will make a tw r o-legged 
creature a man without it." — Buxton. As Charles Lamb once said 
about an oyster pie dinner, "That did the business for us." 

It is wonderful what power there is in half a dozen lines to rouse 
up the latent, dormant and undeveloped energies of the mind. 
Words that never have been heard by mortal ears, silently entering 
into the windows of the soul, how they will ring loud and clear upon 
our inner perceptions. Often times when we strive the hardest to 



KENT '8 NE W COM ME NT All T 81) 

drive them out of mind, louder and still louder they ring out and 
deeper down in our minds they plant themselves, there to remain. 
Is there anything more difficult than trying to forget what we dislike 
to remember ; to forget an unkind remark or a questioning of mo- 
tives. Bury it if you can. No grave has yet been sunk deep enough 
to keep it down. u Banquo's ghost" will keep coming up just when 
we w r ant it to "keep down.' 1 Read the above lines! Every word is 
worth a dollar; every line a hundred dollars. Complete, they are 
worth a thousand dollars to every young man who will engrave them 
upon the tablets of his memory. To some young man it will bring 
untold wealth ; honors that will not die with the vanishing breath of 
vain lamentations. Good words well spoken never die. 

There are many young men w T ho will commence business without a 
dollar in money. All their capital will be in the good use they make 
of the lines above quoted. They will lay the foundation to a mag- 
nificent fortune — to be counted by millions. It has been done by 
many living millionaires. It will be done by some young man per- 
haps now chopping w T ood for his board. Young man it may be you ! 
Read them carefully! Write them in a book and when you are 
about ready to give up, read them again. Hold on one day more. 
Make one more effort w T ith all your might. They will be your talis- 
man to success, to a glorious victory if you are on the " right track." 

Well, did it pay us ? We surpassed our first teacher, and at his re- 
quest we took his seat at the pipe organ in church. We were very 
soon wanted in another church at a much better salary. Owing to 
the state of our finances we needed the change and accepted the 
"call." We always thought it w r as our financial situation that made 
it so loud a call. After a time Ave came West, Our talents could 
not be hid. We had four more calls to play in church than we could 
possibly fill. We were called upon for a great many gratuitous ser- 
vices, which we most cheerfully rendered. We did not do it for ad- 
vertising purposes, yet it did advertise us nevertheless. A new man 
at the organ had all eyes upon him, while we might have sat w T ith 
the congregation six months and not six persons known us by name. 
Sabbath school conventions, picnics, social clubs all wanted our ser- 
vices, much more than we had time to give. Did it pay? Yes; it 
paid the best kind of a dividend. It gave us an acquaintance that 
we never could have secured in any other way. And it paid finan- 



DO KENT \8 NEW COMMENTARY 

cially. A music dealer had failed in whose affairs two Boston firms 
were interested. Each had instruments on consignment; one of 
them pianos, the other parlor organs. Some one that knew some- 
thing about music was wanted to take the instruments and sell 
them; some one who was responsible. Our reputation stood inves- 
tigation and we took charge of the instruments although not in 
our line. However, it paid us well. Our struggle over our " first 
lessons" resulted in a profit of more than two thousand dollars in 
cash to us. 

Young man do not lose an opportunity to improve every talent 
you have. It will pay you sometime, and that well. No young man 
could have learned music under greater discouraging circumstances 
than we did. To be able to play common church music, and that 
was about the extent of our attainments, will pay a hundred fold 
more than all the cost in money and time devoted to it. In fact the 
time devoted to it counts nothing. Every one has spare time am. 
pie for the practice. A few minutes at a time is far better than ten 
hours a day. When the mind is fresh and active, more can be 
accomplished in a few minutes than in a whole day. 

We were spending a few days in a city in Texas, recently, and go- 
ing to church on a Sabbath afternoon we, being a stranger, were sin^ 
gled out by the minister and. he came and shook hands with us, and 
inquired if we could not sing or play the organ. We admitted we 
did play sometimes, and as the regular organist was unable to be 
there, we were pressed into the service. Every one noticed the 
u stranger," and had to shake hands with him. Well, it was not very 
much that we did but it made it very pleasant for us in a strange 
city to meet with such a cordial welcome. It will be treasured up 
as a bright memory of our trip. Had we been destitute of the 
knowledge in special demand just then we should not have had any 
such attention paid to us. We probably would have gone away 
without a kind expression from any one. Young men often ask : 
" What good will this or that do me if I learn it." There is no dan- 
ger of a young man acquiring too much useful knowledge. He never 
will know just when or how his services may be wanted to fill some 
position requiring special talent or experience. If you have any 
taste for music develop it. It will be a great benefit to you individ- 
ually. Nothing is more restful, when tired, perplexed or discour- 



KENT *S NE W COMMENT AH 7 9 1 

aged, than to sit down at the organ and play some of the grand old 
tnnes. It will relieve many a tedious hour. No one can get up 
from an instrument without being made better. Our advice is free; 
what use will you make of it? 

Hark ! We hear voices — telephonic messages — coming from one, 
ten, a hundred, from thousands, "We will at once commence to prac- 
tice upon this advice/' In one year from now nothing would please 
us more than to hear from the thousands who have been improving 
their musical powers by learning to play the organ or piano, and to 
have such write us of their proficiency, and if they have any regrets 
to offer for having commenced to carry out our recommendation. 
Who will do it V We have so much faith in this one article that we 
verily believe it to be as good, yes, better to every one who will 
practice its teachings, than a present of a- thousand dollars in gold 
would be. 

EXPERIENCE MUST BE PAID FOIL 

It has been and always will be with hundreds of young men, 
however enthusiastic or however hard they may work to win success 
in a business they never have learned, they will find by the bitterest 
experience that they will have to pay liberally to learn any business, 
and possibly they may make a miserable failure at last. It is a very 
absurd idea that a person can enter into a business without the least 
knowledge of it, to compete with old and experienced men who have 
been trained up to it from boyhood, and thoroughly educated to it. 
Suppose some foolhardy fellow should step up to the engineer of a 
passenger train some dark and stormy night and sa} r to him : " Mr. 
Engineer, allow me to take your place at the engine. I have seen 
how you pull those levers. I can do that as well as you." Do you 
think that there would be a single passenger who would remain on 
the train with such a fellow to hold the throttle valve; Do you 
think a pilot of one of the great Long Island Sound steamers 
coming into New York Harbor, in a raging storm, or even in 
a clear moonlight night, would stand aside and alloAv a stranger 
who never was on a steamer before in his life, to take the 
helm ? Would not the passengers rise and hurl the fellow from the 
wheel ? Every passenger's life would be in fearful peril, liable to 
death every moment. An indignation* meeting would be held at 



92 KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 

once. The pilot, captain and all hands would be condemned as 
guilty of the grossest carelessness and utterly unworthy of the posi- 
tions they occupied. The idea of allowing an ignoramus to act as 
engineer or pilot where lives and property are in constant jeopardy, 
would bring down the anathemas of every one, simply because the 
fellow is unskilled, ignorant of the requirements of the position he 
assumes to fill. It is precisely so with a young man who thinks he 
can run an}' kind of business he may wish to engage in, when he 
knows not the first requisites to make it a success. Not one in a 
hundred will succeed who makes the trial. In England it requires 
seven long years of apprenticeship before one can set up in business 
for himself. So you can write it down as one of your maxims that. 
" It costs money to learn how to do business successful^." 



HOW SOME MEN HAVE SUCCEEDED. 

ECONOMY THE SECRET. 

Economizing one's resources is the true secret of success. It is 
the only foundation upon which every successful business man has 
built his fortune. A young man, a stranger in the city of Boston, 
travelled up and down the streets seeking for employment, but un- 
successful in finding what he wanted, stumbled upon a load of coal 
lying on a sidewalk, and took the job of shoveling it into the cellar 
for a York shilling (12% cents). He saved the shilling, and it was 
the first step towards the acquisition of a magnificent fortune he 
afterwards secured. 

We know a young man who started business on his own account 
with a small capital in a city among strangers. At first trade came 
to^him slowly. Profits were small, and he was compelled to cut 
down his expenses to the lowest cent. Did he board at a first class 
hotel at $60 or $70 per month, and treat the acquaintances he made 
with cigars and the drinks ? Did he come out with a new r suit every 
six days'? Did he spend his Sundays behind a fast horse? No J 
He lived with his business, slept with it and set his own table. His 



KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY 93 

regular diet consisted of baker's bread and fruit, apples, raw toma- 
toes, etc., at the cost of ten cents a day. Did he succeed ? Yes. 
Every young man can and will succeed when he makes up his mind 
to it. The trouble is they will not make up their mind, and don't 
half try. A thousand good resolutions are but a w r aste of paper and 
ink, w T hen not backed up with an invincible spirit to carry them 
out, or die in the effort. 

To any of our readers who have not been to St. Louis, w T e will say 
that should you ever go there you will find two very remarkable at- 
tractions over which St. Louis prides itself. One is the great bridge 
across the Mississippi River, a wonderful piece of engineering skill 
surpassing anything on this continent. The other will be Shaw's 
Botanical Gardens, where the choicest and rarest of every flower, 
shrub, plant, or tree in the known world can be seen growing in per- 
fection. It comes, to our idea, the nearest to Paradise of anything 
seen or read of on earth. If you have anything that grows in soil 
that Mr. Shaw has not a duplicate of he will pay you handsomely 
for it. Mr. Shaw is nature's nobleman. His generosity reaches to 
the ends of the earth in securing every variety of nature's works, for 
which he has spent thousands of dollars, bringing together the en- 
tire product of this globe within his garden walls, and no expense 
or labor is withheld to bring everything to perfection ; and yet, after 
all this immense outlay, and many years of toil and labor, the whole 
world is invited to come in and enjoy it with him, and the great iron 
gate swings wide open to admit the humblest, the poorest man, wo- 
man, or child, that knocks at its portals. One naughty woman 
strayed in and was so charmed with its beauty, she thought it so de- 
lightful a place she wanted to live there, and as Mr. Shaw T was a 
bachelor, she wanted to be his wife; but Mr. Shaw objected, (he 
probably remembered how Adam lost his place in the Garden of 
Eden), so the w r ould be wife, for her terrible and bitter disappoint- 
ment, asked Mr. Shaw to just hand over a little money to pacify her 
with. She only wanted forty thousand dollars — that was all. Al- 
though Mr. Shaw is a generous man, and had the money, yet he 
refused to comply with her demands. She sued him and brought 
him into court, and in the presence of twelve good men she sighed 
and told how she expected to become Mrs. Shaw, and for the bitter 
disappointment she sighed for just $40,000; and not a dollar less 



94 KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 

could cure her broken heart. She may have been honest in her de~ 
niands but the jury sighed for her, and their verdict was that Mr. 
Shaw must pay her damages — and a round sum it should be, all in 
hard money; the total amount was "one pent!" Oh, how she 
must have sighed then and there ! 

How did Mr. Shaw become so wealthy? Was it left to him by 
some rich uncle in the old country V Not much. When St. Louis 
was simply a little trading post, Mr. Shaw lived in a log hut on the 
banks of the river, and sold jack-knives, fish-hooks, etc., and as he 
could spare a little money from the profits of his jack-knife sales, he 
invested it in land around St. Louis, which the government was selL 
ing at $1.25 per acre, and as the city increased in population his 
lands increased in value, and Mr. Shaw was made immensely rich 
by the rise on his land investments. Mr. Shaw practiced the strict- 
est economy until he secured a fortune. 

EMMA ABBOTT 

Was born in poverty, and deprived of every advantage for improve- 
ment. Some ladies and gentlemen of Moline, 111., heard her sing 
on the streets, and they were pleased. They heard her childish wish 
to become a singer, and they helped her. Miss Clara Louise Kel- 
logg also heard her sing and was delighted. She gave her some in- 
structions and advice and assisted her to a situation in a church choir 
in New York city. A wealthy gentleman was charmed with her fine 
musical talents and sent her to Europe to finish her education and 
furnished the money to pay all her expenses. 

Young men have been helped into good situations, to become 
business men eventually, and partners in the largest establishments 
in the country, who spent their best days on a farm. Ninety out of 
every one hundred successful business men in the large cities were 
brought up in the country as farmers, with perhaps not more than 
three months of schooling in the winter, while rich men's sons fail 
for the want of the early discipline of hard Avork. 

AVORKINO TO WIN. 

Two young men entered into a partnership and bought a manu- 
facturing establishment in the vicinity of Davenport, expecting with 
an ordinary amount of diligence to succeed. They very soon learned 



KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 95 

that the}? had been grossly deceived as to the amount of business 
there was to be done, and that the establishment was so run down 
and worn out that it would require a large outlay before they could 
do or realize anything. Not being thoroughly conversant with the 
business they needed to rely upon others to say what should be done, 
and in this they were outrageously imposed upon and deceived. It 
did not take them long to comprehend the situation — that they were 
badly involved. Two ways opened before them, either to quit work, 
abandon the property and lose all, or buckle down to the task of 
trying to carry the heavy burden saddled upon them. The latter 
course w r as decided upon, and they went to work with a will and 
courage that nothing could dampen or turn them from. The first 
move was to cut dow T n their personal expenses to the very lowest 
possible cent ; to spend not a dime except when absolutely unavoid- 
able. Their table expenses were adjusted on a similar basis. But- 
ter, tea, sugar and coffee was stricken from their bill of fare. Flour 
and corn bread was their standard diet. For years they lived this 
way and worked incessantly day and night; saving everywdiere i 
wasting nothing. It was business with them year in and year out> 
and no holidays — no vacations. Five years passed and with it 
passed the burden, the heavy load, and to-day they are able to live 
without labor. It was the indomitable spirit of sticking to it that- 
won the victory. It always wins. 

Twenty-rive years ago four young men were attending the Iowa 
College, when it was located at Davenport, and having no income or 
friends to help them they were obliged to work their way as best. 
they could. They occupied a garret over a store near the corner of 
Second and Brady streets. On Saturdays they did little jobs around 
the town, sawing wood or whatever they could find to do. One of 
them cleaned bottles for D. C. Eldridge, when he was in the 
drug business. The}? finished their college course, graduating with 
honors, and the partnership of bachelor's hall was dissolved each 
going his own way to make his mark in the world. Three of them 
have become ministers. One of them, Rev. Mr. Tade, is settled in 
Oregon. Two of them were brothers: one Rev. William Windsor, 
an honored pastor of the Congregational church at Marshalltown, 
Iowa ; his brother Rev. J. H. Windsor, has been settled in Grafton, 
Massachusetts, for ten or more years. The fourth became a lawyer. 



96 KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 

and went to St. Louis, married into a wealthy family, and to-day he 
stands as one of the first lawyers in the profession. During the war 
he held a very important office under the government. Should you 
ever have business in St. Louis call on Lucian Eaton, Esq., and you 
will find a gentleman whose acquaintance is worth having, and see 
the boy who washed the bottles for Mr. Eldridge that he might earn 
his bread while pursuing his studies in Iowa College. 

These are examples of the class of men that Iowa College turned 
out then, and is turning out every year. Men who are making their 
mark in the world ; and many more to follow r from under that mas- 
ter mind, Rev. George F. Magoun, D. D., President of the college f 
and the accomplished professors of the institution. There is no 
necessity for Iowa boys to leave the State to secure a thorough col- 
lege education. The distinguished positions already filled by those 
who have gone out from its walls is ample endorsement of the ex- 
cellence of the training Iowa College students have received. We 
venture the assertion that neither Harvard or Yale can show a larger 
per centage of successful talent in the same time among its gradu- 
ates. 

KEEP OUT OF DEBT. 

Getting trusted for an article is by some considered equivalent to 
paying for it. Make up your mind that you never will put on a 
single article of apparel until it is paid for. Better go with patches 
on both knees and a crownless hat, than to run in debt for new ones. 
It is better to have patches on your knees than a patch on your 
credit, If you only start right, and pay as you go, you will be right 
all the time. We know of young men who are always behind in 
their payments. They get trusted for a suit of clothes, and wear it 
as long as they can, and then order a new one paying up for the old 
one only to get a year's credit on the new. It costs full 40 per cent, 
more for them than it costs the pay down customer. When a tailor 
takes a long-time customer he holds him right down to the grind- 
stone. Who desires to be seen on the street in mortgaged apparel? 
Here a tailor says, " There goes one of my customers with a suit 
that's not paid for." Make up your mind to never have your name 
on any man's books, for personal expenses of any kind. This get- 
ting trusted for a box of collars or a toothpick is a bad practice, 



KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 97 

besides being expensive. No dealer will take his chances of losing 
without a round profit. It injures any young man's reputation. 
When you are a merchant another course may be advisable. If you 
have a small capital it may be necessary to make some indebtedness, 
yet we are of the opinion, that in the long run, buying and selling 
strictly for cash is the best way to do business. A cash buyer can 
go wherever he pleases. He is independent of everybody. 



HINDRANCES TO A SUCCESSFUL CAREER. 

IS POVERTY A HINDRANCE? 

Boys born in poverty have the best chances for success, for the 
best of all reasons that they are compelled to rely upon themselves, 
upon their own individual efforts, while the sons of the rich rely 
upon the wealth of their fathers and have no incentive to spur them 
up, no dire necessity which places them solely upon their own re- 
sources. Their wants are well supplied, while the poor boy has to 
work hard to live ; and if he acquires an education it is by great 
personal sacrifice. If a poor boy once gets a thirst for an education, 
gets his ambition " fired up," it will carry him through. Some of 
the most distinguished men of our country left the humble cottages 
where they were born, up among the hills, with their personal estate 
all tied up in a cotton handkerchief, never to return until they had 
drank deep from the fountain of universal knowledge. Hundreds 
of illustrious men could be named who were born in poverty, reared 
in poverty, and left their homes penniless; homes of the plainest 
kind, where comforts were unknown ; where it was a constant strug- 
gle of the family to live, daily fighting the wolf from the door; 
where hunger and want sat daily around the family board. 

Many noted men were born in homes that were cold and cheerless, 

around which storms howled and screeched for admittance; the 

snow of winter often covering the beds wherein lay sleeping the 

men of the future, and when to awake was to crawl out from under 

7 



98 KENT 8 NEW COMMENTARY. 

a snow bank. No hot air furnaces there to burn up the pure oxygen 
— life's greatest elixir — sapping the bloom and flush from the rosy- 
cheeks, and health from the system. That's the way the men of the 
great cities commenced their early life. They had a discipline 
superior to the hot houses of learning, where an unnatural growth 
is stimulated at the expense of an impaired constitution, resulting 
in premature old age, and early death. Witness the mortality 
among the graduates of Mount Holyoke and Yassar College for ex- 
ample. It has been stated that a very large percentage of the grad- 
uates of Mount Holyoke die in less than three years after graduation. 
It is a sad comment on popular education of the day, wherein the 
mind culture overshadows the house it occupies. 

Sons of distinguished men, of the great statesmen, seldom have 
risen above the positions reached by their fathers; seldom have 
they held an equal position ; not one in one hundred or perhaps one 
in a thousand. The majority drop far below, down to the level of 
the commonest people. Some have become roving vagabonds, dis- 
honoring, disgracing their family names. Only once in the history 
of our country has the mantle of the father rested with equal honors 
on the son of a distinguished statesman; that was John Quincy 
Adams. Where are the sons of the other presidents? Of other 
public men; of Clay, of Webster, and scores of illustrious men 
who have electrified their hearers with their glowing eloquence? 
They are dead — dead to all that was noble or grand in the lives of 
their fathers. Dead to all ambition, to every noble impulse of a 
noble nature. Dead, buried, unmissed from society, without mourn- 
ers, no monument erected by a grateful people over their graves to 
carry their names down to generations unborn. 

MONEY WELL EARNED GOES THE FARTHEST. 

When a young man earns $100 by hard work he knows its value. 
Rich men's sons who never earned a dollar in their lives, and have 
all they want to spend, do not know, cannot know the value of a 
dollar, and never will until they are compelled to earn one by hard 
labor. There are young men in college who spend annually more 
than $5,000, while classmates are compelled to cut expenses down 
to less tnan $500. We will venture the prediction that the one 
who spends the least money while at college will be by far the bet- 



KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 99 

ter scholar, and have the most money in ten years. One goes to 
college because he has a rich father to pay all the bills, while the 
other goes because he is anxious to secure a good education, know- 
ing its value for his future success, and to secure it must fight his 
way through poverty and deny himself the ordinary comforts of life. 

A story is told of a young man living in the oil regions of Penn- 
sylvania, who was a steady, industrious young man, driving an ox 
team at $18 per month, for his aunt. She died leaving him with an 
estate worth $2,000,000, besides a royalty worth $2,000 per day. Be- 
coming so suddenly rich, he did not know what to do with himself 
or his fortune. He had never been away from his mountain home. 
He knew nothing about the great world outside of the narrow bounds 
in which he had lived. He decided to see the world and for com- 
pany he hired several young men to go along with him to help en- 
joy the sights and spend the money. They started out for Columbus, 
Ohio. On arrival at the depot he got up a quarrel with the hack- 
man about the fare and finally settled by buying the hack and hiring: 
the driver to take them to a hotel. Here he engaged an entire floor 
for his party, and lay all night drunk on the parlor carpet. Next 
day he bought more horses and selected a driver to take them 
around the city. When there were no more sights to see he presented 
the driver with the hack, horses and all. So he went from city to 
city, spending his money in the most lavish manner, astonishing 
bootblacks, hotel-runners and table-waiters with hundred dollar or 
five hundred dollar bank notes. Any way to get rid of $2,000 a day. 
He drank at every fountain of pleasure, giving free rein to all the 
passions. But this style of living could not last long. The end 
came in less than two years. 

The money did not fail ; there was no lack of funds ; no lack of 
places to visit or sights to see. He was arrested for a debt. A stern 
officer had laid his hands upon him. He was bound fast. No bonds 
would be accepted, he could not get bail. His two millions could 
not purchase his release or a reprieve, and he had to accept the in- 
exorable fate — death. Do you think when he came down to the 
border land he was happy as he looked back over two years of his 
life. Was not $18 a month driving oxen better than $2,000 a day 
with all the dissipation and disgrace and disease that he had con- 
tracted, for which there was no relief, no cure. Truly the way of the 



100 KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 

transgressor is hard, and the "wages of sin is death." There is a 
greater misfortune than being born poor. It' is in being heir to 
great wealth. Wealth that comes without effort, without toil, is not 
always a blessing. 

A young man in Boston was left with a fortune of $50,000, and in 
one year's time he had spent it all in gambling and dissipation. 
Such instances are by no means rare in this country. 

THERE ARE MANY THINGS MONEY CANNOT BUY. 

The sons and daughters of the wealthy are given the very best 
advantages afforded in this country or abroad. Everything is done 
for them that money and influence can do. A distinguished teacher 
.said to us that it was almost a hopeless task to make a good musician, 
vocal or instrumental, out of pupils from the wealthier classes; 
that they should often send them home were it not for the interest 
the father or mother had to have their son or daughter learn music. 
A poor man's daughter would get her tuition money returned to her 
if she did not possess superior musical ability. 

What is the early history of all the singers in the fashionable 
churches of the large cities. Are they from the aristocracy? No. 
They came from the poor families, from some country home up 
among the mountains, where they had no advantages for improve- 
ment. There was where they became inspired. The singing of 
birds and the music of the " rocks and rills," fitted their souls for 
diviner strains. The more they became filled with nature's music, 
the greater became their thirst to drink deeper from its fountains. 
Mountains and hills echo gladsome strains, songs almost divine. A 
party from the city, roughing it in the woods, catch the echos as 
they leap from hill to hill, from crag to cliff, and they are thrilled, 
entranced. Where could such strains of music come from, "sweet 
as an angel's voice." The song ceases. The singer must be found. 
They search. A log cabin is discovered. They approach. A timid 
girl retreats behind it. A rap at the door meets the response, " Come 
in." They tell of the music that charmed them, and empire who 
and where was the singer. The woman knows of no singer there. 
"That is strange. Have you not a daughter or a little girl that 
sings?" "Oh, yes; my little girl sings to herself, she knows noth- 
ing about music. M "Will you have her come in and sing for us?" 



KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 101 

And the timid girl comes reluctantly out from her hiding place to 
sing one of her wild mountain songs. " Ah, we have found you out; 
you are the angel we heard singing so sweetly." Five years pass. 

If you are in New York go to Dr. 's church, on Madison Avenue, 

and you will hear the same sweet singer, singing for a salary of one 
thousand dollars a year. 



BRAINS AND LABOR. RESULT : SUCCESS. 

BRAIN POWER. 

It is brains that wins, that conquers, and controls all powers. It 
puts into harness and holds the reins to all the combined forces, ani- 
mal and mechanical, as well as the elements. A celebrated painter 
was once asked what he " mixed his paints with." He replied, " with 
brains." The great battles of the world were not won by brute 
force, or by the superiority in numbers of men engaged on one side 
over the other, but by the brain power of the victorious commanders, 
who could arrange all the plans for the battle days, weeks, even 
months before a movement was made or a gun fired, with every 
division and every man assigned to the right position in advance. 
Victory was simply the inevitable results of brain power developed. 

Individuals are born with unequal brains. It is simply quality 
and cultivation that makes the difference. It is a fact that many a 
man has made his mark in the world who had, by actual weight, a 
very small brain, yet wonderfully active; while other men, with 
Websterian brains, have hardly made a ripple. Like the rich deep 
soil of the Mississippi valley, of no more value without cultivation 
than the rocky soil of New England, or an African desert. 

THE PATHFINDER. 

When General Fremont, the great pathfinder, undertook to lead 
his pioneer soldiers over a trackless waste across the Rocky Moun- 
tains, through the deep and constantly falling snows of a terribly 



102 KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 

cold winter, a long march of untold suffering, which was only sur- 
passed by the army of Napoleon on its return from Moscow, he had 
an experience that tested his mettle, and developed his power to 
control his men and himself under a great and trying emergency. 
He had not proceeded far on that perilous march before his men be- 
gan to falter, disheartened, overcome by the fatigue of wading 
through the deep snow, and by the intensely bitter cold of the high 
altitude. Falling behind, many of his men, they lay down in 
their tracks to die. Squads of men would be sent back to bring in 
the stragglers, but no amount of persuasion, no realization of the 
horrors of death, of freezing, or being a feast for wolves, or any 
force used upon them, could arouse them up to even reach the camp, 
and they had to be left where they were, to their fate. Fremont be- 
came alarmed as he saw his ranks diminishing, and he was fearful 
that the whole command would perish in the mountains. 

But he was equal to the emergency, and issued imperative orders 
to shoot the first man who laid down on the march. The result was 
electric. Not a man straggled behind; not a man was shot; the 
command was saved. An indomitable, unconquerable spirit, was 
master of the situation. Until the last man was dead in his tracks, 
and his own last drop of blood congealed in his veins, would he 
unfalteringly execute his plans. It was victory or death. To have 
halted was sure death ; to go forward was death if he slacken his 
discipline in the smallest degree. 

Was it from the sudden unexpected difficulties that he found him- 
self surrounded with? Far from it. It was the discipline, the 
training, the conquering of himself years before this, which had 
fitted him for just such an emergency. How unlike Alexander the 
Great, who subdued everything but himself. When he mapped out 
a plan of action, it was to win. Everything, every movement, was 
planned to its accomplishment. Probably not one man in a million 
could have crossed the Rocky Mountains under similar circum- 
stances. General Fremont well earned the name of " Pathfinder." 

WANT A TURNPIKE. 

Some men can easily follow a well beaten road, but when it comes 
to cutting their way through a trackless wilderness, over mountains 
towering up among the clouds, in the deep snow, to facing the ter- 



KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 103 

rific blasts of an Arctic winter, sweeping down upon them from the 
lofty and barren peaks of the Rockies, they are out of their element. 
Contrast General Fremont's achievements with the Donner Lake 
catastrophe. Here was a party of some seventy persons, that under- 
took in mid-winter to go through to California, and were lost in the 
snow, and compelled to eat the dead bodies of their companions. 
Every soul perished. They had no Fremont for a leader and so 
leader and all perished. 

BORN GREAT. 

Men are not born great. Greatness is not thrust upon any one. 
Men who have distinguished themselves have carved out their own 
fortunes by indefatigable zeal, and unconquerable determination 
never to surrender, never to give up. They became the " architects 
of their own fortunes." The way is clear; the doors stand wide 
open for every young man in America to accomplish something 
that may make his pathway through life bright, and leave for him a 
name that will not be forgotten when he shall have finished his 
career. 

AFTER THE BUGS AND ROCKS. 

A few years ago a Davenport boy might have been seen run- 
ning up and down the bluffs, anywhere and everywhere, across the 
fields at break neck speed, with a scoop net in hand, scooping up 
bugs, butterflies, grasshoppers, fleas, etc., and in fact, everything he 
could scare up or scrape up into his net. Sometimes he was dig- 
ging in the earth after grubs, or peering under old logs after beetles, 
or climbing trees like woodpeckers, after worms and bark lice. 
Everybody asked, "What ails that boy? He must be foolish or 
crazy." Nobody complained, however, and they let him run. 
When the Davenport Academy of Natural Sciences had completed 
a building, and thrown it open to the public, everybody was de- 
lighted with the Indian war clubs, the stone hatchets and arrow- 
heads, and the thousand and one relics of the red man and the un- 
known mound builders. But the entomologist department was com- 
plete, a wonder of wonders. Every known insect in Iowa, and almost 
in the West, from Mexico to California, and to the life line of the 
North, was on exhibition, all arranged in classes, with their scien- 



104 KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 

tific names attached. Who could have collected such a multitude 
and arranged them with such skill. It was the work of the " foolish 
boy," who had been seen so many years before, running down but- 
terflies, bugs, and beetles. Davenport has the finest entomological 
collection in the West, and the best entomologist. His achievements 
have been recognized at home and by the savans of Europe. It was 
the result of the concentration of talent to the one idea. He had 
one single object, one end in view. Do you wonder that he 
succeeded. 

Another young man owns a fine cabinet of geological and miner- 
alogical specimens in the same institution, the large cases filling 
one entire side of a large room, a collection costing much time, 
labor and money to secure and arrange. It displays a talent, and 
desire to read the records of the rocks; a thirst for the knowledge 
to unlock their hidden secrets; to know their compositions, and the 
mysteries of long periods marking each epoch of time. 

Here are illustrations of what two young men have accomplished 
by faithful concentration of their efforts to special lines of scientific 
investigation. The same opportunities have been and are now open 
to hundreds of young men in our city, and in every city in the 
country. Why do they not improve them ? Are their minds occu- 
pied in scientific researches in other directions, preparing to bring 
before the world new discoveries in the sciences and arts ? It is one 
of the saddest thoughts to every reflective mind that so many young 
men, endowed with good natural abilities if exercised in the right 
direction, are wasting their talents aimlessly. They could distin- 
guish themselves in the world if they would only turn their efforts 
in the right channels. Instead of that, they neglect the cultivation 
of their talents, and the fires that ought to burn clear and bright 
are smothered. The fine ability of the young men of to-day, if 
properly developed, would, in twenty years, revolutionize the world. 
The wheels of progress would roll on, and the wonders of to-day 
would be forgotton by the new and greater discoveries in the world 
of science. The present modes of travel, and of interchange of 
thought, would become too slow and obsolete. 

There was a time when the earth was supposed to be the centre of 
the universe, and the heavenly bodies revolved around it. Astrono- 
mers then discovered that the sun was the centre, and everything 



KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 105 

revolved around the sun. More powerful telescopes were con- 
structed, which revealed stars that did not seem to revolve around 
the sun. The heavens were scanned for years to solve the mystery. 
Larger telescopes were made, sweeping across the immense spaces 
without limit, and other stars, other unknown worlds appeared. This 
new and startling discovery was overwhelming. The stupendous 
proposition could not be solved by any previous hypothesis. In 
vain have philosophers tried to fix the bounds, to limit the power of 
the Infinite, beyond which He could not act or exist; yet when the 
mind was about to grasp each new discovery, the curtain lifted to 
unfold still greater mysteries. The vastness, the immense distances 
intervening between our systems and other unknown systems, is as 
yet, unfathomable, incomprehensible. Where is the end, where the 
bounds? " Who can find out the Almighty by searching?" What 
a field remains to be explored in the starry heavens ! Who are to 
build the greater instruments of the future ? Who are to read the 
heavens under the light of the next new revelation ? Who are to be 
the men to startle the world by revolutionizing the present methods 
of travel, by sea, earth and air ? 

The world is in its infancy. Each day brings a new revelation, 
each year brings new demonstrations of man's progress in physical 
supremacy over the elements above and under the earth. A decade, 
and the world of science and of arts erects a barrier between the 
past and present that buries in obscurity the wonders of a dying 
generation. What possibilities for the young man of the period, 
just stepping upon the stage of active life, to revel in the new and 
startling developments, surpassing all the achievements of centuries 
gone before. What opportunities to inscribe their names high, above 
all of the combined wisdom of the past and present ! Young man 
look up and not down ! There is plenty of room at the top for you. 
Will you occupy it? The burden is on your shoulders. Will you 
carry it? And concentrating your efforts to one thing with indom- 
itable energy you will be the victorious champion of whatever you 
shall undertake. 

HOW ONE MAN WON. 

Some twenty-five years ago a young man left his home is Massa- 
chusetts and took a situation in a mercantile house to sell dry goods 



106 KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 

and yankee notions. It was not, however, congenial to his tastes or 
education. He therefore dropped the yard stick, jumped the counter 
and said good-bye to all. He entered the law office of a leading at- 
torney of Davenport and went- to reading Blackstone, Coke, Kent's 
Commentaries, etc. His financial condition was such that he did not 
need to solicit the banks to take charge of his surplus funds ; neither 
did they, to our knowledge, solicit his deposits. There was in this 
regard a mutual indifference all around. He may have been troubled 
with dyspepsia, for he avoided hotel fare, and accepted in lieu, plain 
boarding house diet. His theory was, that to become a good student 
whether for business or for a profession, the best plan was to fall in 
love with it. He practiced this theory, and became thoroughly en- 
thused for legal lore, applying himself dilligently to his books day 
and night. His wardrobe answered the double purpose of dress for 
the day and dress for the night, bed spreads and all. His economy 
was worthy of the highest praise; a financial crisis hung over 
him continually, and all that saved him from going under were the 
insignificant cases before police justices that the Judge would not 
undertake and turned over to our hero to make what he could out of. 
He would load himself down with ponderous volumes of authorities, 
whether touching the case in point or not, we do not understand, and 
neither did the Justice. But he trembled at the sight of them, and 
knowing that the Judge's library was the largest in the State, and 
knowing that there would be no end to the case if all the books 
therein were to be brought out, the shortest way was to accept the 
ipse dixit of the young attorney of the law, and so decide. 

Opportunities of this kind to our hero were exceedingly welcome ; 
the practice and the fees were well relished. Indefatigable in his at- 
tention to the duties of the office, always ready to work day and 
night if necessary, reading up the authorities, preparing cases for 
trial, etc., his services became very valuable. All this, however, did 
not go for nothing. Such devotion to business is sure to bring its 
reward in due time. Most young men do not realize this fact, how- 
ever, till too late in life. The business of the office was constantly 
increasing. A partner was wanted, and although a score of young 
men had been educated in the same office, none had been so devoted 
to the interests of the Judge as he, and so he became the junior 
partner. Poverty had been his boon companion in all these years. 



KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 107 

Now the wheel of fortune begins to revolve for a new deal, (not a 
fortune-teller's wheel), and it brings around to the new partner from 
one case gained, a little fee of more than $40,000. Other suits gained 
rolled in additional fees fat and heavy. 

Our young attorney does not eat boarding house hash now, or 
sleep in his clothes on a bunk under the shadows of cords of legal 
opinions, or set up night after night to write up briefs. He has re- 
tired from the practice of the law, owns a charming villa, lives in 
the quiet enjoyment of one of Davenport's most beautiful homes, 
where friends are always welcome. He has spent nearly two years 
traveling in foreign countries. He is a true gentleman, greeting all 
with a genuine cordiality that makes one feel better every time of 
meeting. He did not consult fortune-tellers or spirit rappers, but 
went to work to make his fortune, and made it by labor, the way all 
legitimate fortunes are made. 

Let us suppose that he had been indifferent and unaccommodating 
every time he was asked to do a little extra work ; the result would 
have been that he would be where hundreds of other young men are 
to-day, without money and without reputation; filling a place that 
is better unfilled. Whenever we hear " My country, 'tis of thee ! " 
sung, we think of its venerable author, and his son, S. F. Smith, Esq., 
of Oak Lawn, Davenport, Iowa. 



MEN WHO STARTED AT THE FOOT OF THE 
LADDER. 

General Grant, when the war broke out, was tanning hides at Ga- 
lena, 111. He had been a farmer, had hauled wood into St. Louis, 
and had failed to make a fortune at farming or anything else. When 
he was appointed Colonel of an Illinois regiment he had not the 
money to buy his uniform and necessary equipage. His old friend, 
and our old friend, E. A. Collins, Esq., loaned him the money — $400. 
He had failed in everything he taken hold of, but his military record 
shows that he had found his forte, also the enemy's fort, and taken 
it. To-day he stands upon the highest round of fame ever reached 
by any human being. The entire world has paid its compliments 
to U. S. Grant. 

Daniel Webster had no remarkable traits of character in his boy- 
hood. He was sent to Exeter Academy in New Hampshire. After 
remaining awhile he gave up and started home. A neighbor found 
him on his way by the roadside, crying. He asked him what was 
the matter. He said he never could make a scholar; he was always 
at the foot of the class, and the boys were making fun of him, and 
he had given up school and was going home. The neighbor told 
him that he must not do that, but go back to school, and if he would 
study hard it would no be long before he would stand at the head of 
his class. Daniel took the advice and went back, He applied him- 
self to his studies with a determination to win, and it was not long 
before he changed his position from the foot to the head of the class, 
and kept there, and silenced those who had ridiculed him for his 
poor scholarship. When he graduated at Dartmouth College he was 
not assigned to the position he thought belonged to him. After re- 
ceiving his diploma, he went back of the College building and said 
to his associates : " This diploma will not make me a great man. If 
I ever distinguish myself hereafter it will be by my own individual 
efforts ; this sheep-skin will not do it." He tore up his diploma with 
the remark that " Dartmouth College will hear from me ;" and they 
did hear from him, for they had to call him back to save their char- 
ter, the charter of the College that did not appreciate his talents 



KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 109 

when he graduated ; and they were compelled to employ him in its 
defence, and it was by his masterly efforts that it was forever estab- 
lished on a foundation as lasting as the granite which it rests upon. 
When he appeared at the trial the question was asked by the leading 
men of the bar : " What can that young man say in defense of the Col- 
lege Charter? " The odds were against him. A rich and powerful 
State, with finest legal talent against a young man alone, and he 
was engaged simply because the College was too poor to employ 
first-class counsel. The young man found something to say, and it is 
said that his masterly eloquence brought tears from the eyes of the 
presiding judge, as well as from many of the spectators. He did 
have something to say, and said it well. 

Hon. George W. McCrary, late Secretary of War and successor to 
Judge Dillon on the bench of the United States Circuit Court, started 
life as a poor lad, and worked on a farm to help his widowed mother 
maintain the family. His manly bearing in his youthful days won 
for him the respect of every one. One straight-forward course won 
for him the place he now occupies. 

Judge James Grant started low down on the ladder. He walked 
all the way from South Carolina to Davenport, Iowa, with his entire 
worldly effects tied up in a bandanna handkerchief slung on a stick 
over his shoulders. He owns the largest law library in the State of 
Iowa, and has tendered it to Scott County as a free gift. He has re- 
ceived more than $150,000 in fees from a single suit. He owned 
the largest smelt works in the world located at Leadville, Colorado, 
which he has recently sold. He has given four of his nephews the 
best opportunities at home and abroad to acquire a first class educa- 
tion. His whole success may be summed up in three words, work, 
pluck, push. 

Judge John F. Dillon's early life commenced under very unfavor- 
able circumstances. His father was not blessed with an abundance 
of worldly goods, and was obliged to labor by the day to support his 
family. The country was new and sparsely settled. The Indians 
had j ust left and there were no public schools. The only educational 
privileges he could avail himself of were from itinerent peda- 
gogues, who came along occasionally to teach a few weeks at a time. 
But John had a thirst for knowledge, and he made the most of his 
opportunities, and applied himself with a will that knew no defeat. 



110 KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 

He studied medicine with a resident practitioner and entered upon 
the practice. His physical powers were unequal to the hardship of 
riding over trackless prairies and bridgeless streams in all weathers* 
and perhaps it was not his forte, perhaps not congenial to his tastes. 
He "threw his physic to the dogs" and went to reading law. At 
twenty-five he was a partner in one of the leading law firms of the 
city. At [twenty-seven he was elected district judge and occupied 
the position until he was chosen to the Supreme Court of Iowa. This 
new position he filled until appointed United States Circuit Judge 
of the Eighth Judicial District, and only resigned last September to 
fill a more prominent position, and at a better compensation, having 
received an appointment as profsssor in Columbia Law School, New 
York city, and being chosen as advisory counsel of a large railroad 
corporation. His name had been often mentioned for the supreme 
bench of the United States, but the fact that Iowa had already one 
judge on the supreme bench prevented his name being brought for- 
ward for the place. Besides performing most acceptably the duties 
of a conscientious and upright judge for twenty years, he has found 
time to compile numerous law works, and his publications have be- 
came standard authorities in all the courts. He is comparatively a 
young man, and greater honors await him should he live to the 
ordinary age of " three score and ten.." Here is a model for every 
young man to study well. No young man has started under greater 
difficulties than did John F. Dillon. College honors and diplomas 
were not won by him to make boast of. He succeeded through his 
own individual efforts, with none of the advantages that thousands 
of rich men's sons enjoy. Young men do not be discouraged, do not 
give up. If you have the fire within you stir it up, make it burn 
brightly, clear and strong. Make it hot. The road is open, the 
track is clear, drive on. Remember, however, that it is the concen- 
tration of all the powers to a single purpose that wins the race. 

Rev. Dr. Joel Hawes worked his way through college, and through 
Andover Theological Seminary under very unusual difficulties. The 
day he graduated at the Seminary he went upon the stage with his 
boots " pinned up," to hide his stockingless feet, and with his vest 
buttoned up to his chin that the ladies should not see the style of his 
shirt front, which was fashioned by the same hand that fashioned 
the first man's similar garment. The poverty stricken young man 



KENT "S NEW COMMENTARY. Ill 

was not ashamed to do his best and to do his duty with such apparel 
as he owned. Such young men make their mark and he made his. 
He became a distinguished divine, and was settled at Hartford, Con- 
necticut, for many years. He wrote and published numerous works, 
among them his " Lectures to Young Men," which had a very extend- 
ed sale. Had he been filled with that exquisite fastidiousness that 
makes some young men and perhaps young ladies so very nice, 
that all their thoughts and anxieties are on " etiquette," and to be 
fashionable, he would, like them, have accomplished nothing. 

A. Kimball, Esq., General Superintendent of one of the best rail- 
roads in the West, the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific, is a New 
Hampshire boy, who commenced railroading as a fireman, and often 
worked the brakes. By his faithful devotion to the interests of his 
employers in whatever position he attempted to fill, he developed his 
capacity to fill a higher station. Slowly and steadily he advanced, 
step by step, and at every turn of the wheel came the order to go up 
higher, until at last he has reached the highest round in the gift of 
any railroad corporation. His name has been chosen to christen the 
new hotel of our city. Should the proprietors run it on the " Kim- 
ball plan," they will not fail for want of patronage. But where are 
the young men who started out to seek their fortunes with Mr. Kim- 
ball. None have reached a higher position ; the minority have not 
even been heard from. And why not ? 

Anna Dickinson won her way by persistent and indomitable 
energy. How many young ladies would like to be honored as she 
has been in the " lecture field." Yet how many would get down on 
their knees on a public street and scrub a sidewalk, as she did, to 
earn a quarter that she might hear Wendell Phillips lecture. The 
same man who hired Phillips to lecture afterwards engaged Anna 
Dickinson Sit four hundred dollars a night. 

Young man, do you covet an honored position in the world? 
Would you have your name spoken of only " in praise?" Then 
learn the A B C's if you have not. It is no game of chance, no lot- 
tery. It is the universal law of " endless progression," by which the 
good positions are reached. 

" The heights by great men reached and kept, 
Were not attained by sudden flight; 
But they, while their companions slept, 
Were toiling up and in the night." 



WHAT BRINGS HAPPINESS. 

HAPPINESS VERSUS GOLD. 

Perhaps there never was a greater mistake made, and one that 
never can be corrected in this world, than this, the idea that wealth 
brings happiness; that all a man needs is plenty of gold to enjoy 
unalloyed happiness to the end of his days. A greater mistake is 
not possible. The abundant testimony of those that have vast wealth 
ought to be conclusive of the fact. A rich man is in peril every 
moment of his life, at home or abroad. There are ten thousand foes 
on his track. All the combined talent of the most desperate and 
daring thieves, blacklegs, cut-throats and murderers, conspire to get 
his money. Hungry children, a dissolute son, or some distant rela- 
tive, hungry for his anticipated inheritance, are wishing him dead. 
All are setting traps to ensnare his feet; or hiring some villain to 
break into his house in the quiet stillness of the night to murder 
him in cold blood, to steal a will and destroy it. A rich man can 
not sell a piece of property but it is known by " layers in wait," to 
steal the proceeds from him. 

The murder of Mr. George Davenport on Rock Island, 111., one 
fourth of July, furnishes an illustration. He had received consider- 
able money a few days before. An acquaintance comes over to see 
the family, stops to tea, finds out who are going to the celebration 
the next clay, and learns that Mr. Davenport will remain at home. 
When the celebration is the liveliest, five strangers steal into Mr. 
Davenport's house. He is sitting in his parlor at the time and gets 
up to see who is coming. They shoot him, only wounding him. 
They then drag him up stairs to make him open his safe. They 
choke him until he is senseless, then throw water in his face to re- 
vive him. They get his money. Mr. Davenport lived long enough 
to tell of his terrible strug 6 ie with his murderers. The man that 
took supper was the u stool pigeon," who engineered the plot. 

A man draws $5,000 at a bank to take home to pay off a mortgage 
on his farm. Two men ask to ride with him. As soon as they are 
fairly in the wagon they knock him senseless, and take his money. 



KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 113 

The door bell rings in the evening and the man of wealth steps to 
the door, opens it, and three masked men spring upon him, bind 
him fast, and silence the family with a display of revolvers. The 
house is then robbed. 

Only a few days ago an aged couple in Illinois were living in 
quiet retirement. Burglars break in, kill the husband and torture the 
wife over the fire until she cannot endure it longer, and force her to 
tell where the money is hid. 

The man of wealth is annoyed constantly with anonymons letters, 
threatening him that if he does not send $1,000 or $5,000 immedi- 
ately, he will be shot the first dark night caught out or fixed in some 
way. A man cannot travel without being liable to be " taken off." 

Gold will not give health when lost, or buy off death. A rich man 
rides in his carriage and sees the farmer ploughing in the field and 
says, " What would I not give if I could take that man's place at the 
plow." The poor man footing it wearily along sees the carriage 
roll past and wishes he could ride in " such fine style." Baron 
Rothschild was constantly threatened if he did not " shell out." 
Thieves and murderers are regularly organized and have their 
agents in every city. They plan the work, watch every movement, 
know all the trades and transfers and who gets the money, and then 
send for an outside accomplice, a stranger to the community to 
come in and take the pile. He comes in the night, does his work 
in the night, and leaves in the night, and the police are all in the 
dark as to who could have done the deed. Various devices are re- 
sorted to, to learn all about a house they propose to break into. A 
man in a working suit comes to see about the gas or water, or a 
leak in the roof; any excuse simply to get inside to see how the 
rooms are arranged and occupied; or perhaps, in broad day 
light, if the husband is away, kills the wife and then robs the 
house. A most amiable lady at East Boston, some three or four 
years ago, heard her door bell ring and on opening it a man dressed 
in a working suit said to her, " The gas company sent me to look 
after the meter." And he wished she would show him where it was. 
She goes down into the cellar to show him and he murders her in 
cold blood and steals the rings from her fingers, and robs the house; 
all in broad daylight. A man of wealth never knows when he or 
his family are safe Irom these desperadoes. 

8 



114 KENT 8 NEW COMMENTARY. 

A MILLIONAIRE'S ENJOYMENTS. 

The following story is told of Jacob Ridgway, a wealthy citizen of 
Philadelphia, who died many years ago leaving a fortune of five or 
six million dollars : 

"Mr. Ridgway," said a young man with whom the millionaire 
was conversing, "you are more to be envied than any gentleman I 
know." 

"Why so?" responded Mr. Ridgway. "I am not aware of any 
cause for which I should be particularly envied." 

"What, sir!" exclaimed the youug man in astonishment; "why, 
you are a millionaire. Think of the thousands your income brings 
you every month." 

"Well, what of that?" replied Mr. Ridgway; " all I get out of it 
is my victuals and clothes, and I cannot eat more than one man's 
allowance or wear more than one suit at a time. Pray, can you not 
do as much ? " 

"Ah! but," said the youth, "think of the hundreds of fine houses 
you own, and the rentals they bring to you." 

" What better am I off for that?" replied the rich man; " I can 
only live in one house at a time. As for the money I receive for 
rents, why, I can't eat it or wear it. I can only use it to buy other 
houses for other people to live in ; they are the beneficiaries, not I." 

" But you can buy splendid furniture and costly pictures, fine car- 
riages and horses; in fact anything you desire." 

"And after I have bought them," responded Mr. Ridgway, " what 
then ? I can only look at the furniture and pictures, and the poorest 
man, who is not blind, can do the same. I can ride no easier in a 
fine carriage than you can in an omnibus for five cents, without the 
trouble of attending to drivers, footmen and hostlers ; aud as to any- 
thing I desire, I can tell you, young man, the less we desire in this 
world, the happier we shall be. All my wealth cannot buy me a 
single day more of life; cannot procure me power to keep afar 
from the hour of death; and then what will it avail, when, in a few 
short years at most, I lie down in the grave and I leave it all, forever. 
Young man, you have no cause to envy me." 

A few months ago a millionaire died, and the first question asked 
was : " How much money did he leave ?" The answer was : "He left 
it ally " Burial robes have no pockets." 



KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 115 

ONE WEALTHY LADY'S EXPERIENCE. 

Mrs. Hooper writes of a lady residing in Paris, under a disguised 
name, but none other than Mrs. John Mackay, the wife of a Califor- 
nia millionaire. She gives numerous instances of how Mrs. Mackay 
was annoyed as soon as her great wealth and her residence was 
known in that city. She received a great many letters and numerous 
calls from professional beggars and impostors. We quote a few of 
the most amusing and barefaced impositions attempted. A pen- 
niless Spaniard wanted to return to his home in Cuba, and begged 
for one thousand dollars to buy an outfit for himself. A Frenchman 
wrote that he was in desperate need of ten thousand dollars, and if 
he didn't get it immediately he would drown himself in the Seine 
or jump off the Arc de Triomphe. A woman must have five thou- 
sand dollars or she would be driven to a life of shame. An English 
woman only asked for $100,000 to redeem an estate in England, so 
that she and her brother could live in affluence the balance of their 
days. A fellow had given his betrothed $60,000 worth of jewelry, 
and the bill had become due, and he wanted to borrow that amount 
for a short time. Mrs. Mackay was equal to the occasion and ad- 
vised the lover to go to his lady love and explain the situation of his 
finances. He left in a hurry. A pretended South American consul 
represented that he was commissioned by a friend who was worth 
eight million dollars to select a lady for a wife, and he understood that 
she had an unmarried sister and he would condescend to recom- 
mend her to become the countess of his rich friend. An Ameri- 
can lady was in deep distress; all her furniture had been seized 
and her children were starving, and she was fainting for the want of 
food. Mrs. Mackay gave her quite a large sum and while out for a 
drive the next day, she met the lady riding in great style, with a new 
bonnet, six button gloves, etc. At first the tales of woe affected Mrs. 
Mackay so that she often cried herself to sleep, and in her dreams 
she would see these unfortunates drowning, or jumping off from 
some dizzy height, to be dashed to atoms. She soon learned that 
nearly every applicant was a professional imposter. 

Rich people have more trials and annoyances, and often suffer 
more than a man who labors for his daily bread. Wealth does not 
secure unalloyed happiness. It is the cause of much unhappiness. 



116 KENT'S NE W COMMENTARY. 

It is said that there are as many disadvantages on the side of wealth 
as there are on the side of poverty. 

"POOR RICHARD'S" ADVICE. 

There are two ways of being happy — we may either diminish our 
wants or augment our means — either will do, the result is the same; 
and it is for each man to decide for himself, and do that which hap- 
pens to be easiest. If you are idle or sick or poor, however hard it 
may be for you to diminish your wants it will be harder to augment 
your means. If you are active and prosperous, or young and in 
good health, it may be easier for you to augment your means and 
diminish your wants. But if you are wise you will do both at the 
-same time, young or old, rich or poor, sick or well ; and, if you are 
very wise, you will do both in such a way as to augment the general 
happiness of society. — Benjamin FranJdin. 

"Gold! gold! gold! gold! 
Bright and yellow, hard and cold, 
Molten, graven, hammered and rolled; 
Heavy to get and light to hold; 
Hoarded, bartered, bought and sold, 
Stolen, borrowed, squandered, doled; 
Spurned by the young but hugged by the old 
To the very verge of the church-yard mould; 
Price of many a crime untold: 
Gold! gold! gold! gold! 
Good or bad a thousand fold! 
How widely its agencies vary, — 
To save— to ruin — to curse — to bless — 
As even its minted coins express, 
Now stamped with the image of good Qneen Bess, 
And now of a bloody Mary. 11 

—Thomas Hood. 



INDULGENCE OF APPETITE. 

" Though the mills of God grind slowly, 
Yet they grind exceeding'y s nail ; 
Though with patience he st inds waiting, 
With exactness grinds he all." —Longfellow, 

RUINED BY WHISKY. 

About twenty-five years ago, a young man with a good common 
school education, left his Vermont home and came to Davenport 
He learned a good trade, was steacly and economical in his habits, 
His father sent him a few thousand dollars to become one of a firm, 
— to be a business man. He laid aside his poor apparel and dressed 
in first class style. Unacquainted with the office work, and not hav- 
ing a faculty for soliciting outside business, there was little for him 
to do but stand as a figure head. Too proud to go to work in the 
department he had learned, he became " a gentleman at large.' 1 
The business was not a success. It was a failure. The war broke 
out; he obtained a clerkship in the quartermaster's department. 
The Sanitary Commission of St. Louis, Mo., wanted funds to carry 
on their work. A lottery was resorted to to raise the funds. He 
bought a ticket; it drew for him $5,000 cash. His father died and 
more money came to him from the estate. He married, and shortly 
after the wedding he invited a friend who had just married to spend 
an evening with him. He brought out the wedding cake and a bot- 
tle of wine. They enjoyed themselves alone, eating and drinking, 
The hour to separate arrived, when the guest said, "George, now we 
cannot afford this." It did not please him. He was angry and re- 
plied, " I can drink or let it alone, as I please." It was their last 
meeting as friends. The war closed and other business was obtained. 
Friends became his bondsmen. They had to make up deficiencies 
and he was soon out of business. The habit of drink was now his 
master. As business and friends departed, the harder he continued 
to drink. The last time we saw him was early one morning, and he 
was entering the rear of one of the lowest groggeries on Front 
.street, a place we should have been afraid to have entered at the 



118 KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 

front door even at noon time. When all was gone, money, reputa- 
tion, credit, and the last friend, he in hopeless despair of the present 
future leaped into the unknown future. Retreating to a solitary 
place, he sat down and placing a revolver to his temple, its bullet 
entered his brain, and his soul sped on its journey to the land of de- 
parted spirits. Twenty-five thousand dollars in money, wife, friends, 
reputation, all went to satisfy the demon of drink — whisky. He 
died in the very prime of manhood. This was a young man who 
could " drink or let it alone." 

In the light of this terrible example, young men who saw the be- 
ginning and the end of this sad wreck, followed the same track, step 
by step, and are now also laid near by in the same cemetery ; and 
there are "more to follow." The spider's web that a breath would 
sunder, has been, is weaving, a net, a cord, that will become like a 
chain to hold, and will hold them like a vice to the last. 

We stood upon one of the beautiful bluffs, that line the shore of 
the " Father of Waters," one beautiful June day, just before the sun 
had dropped behind the western horizon, and were watching one ol 
those grand floating palaces gliding along down stream, freighted 
with human life. The passengers were happy in the enjoyment of 
a voyage, wherein all was so delightful and with the brightest antici- 
pations of its happy termination, and the glad welcome awaiting 
them from loving friends, far away — but hark ! a fearful crash is 
heard. Screams of alarm and terror break the stillness of that quiet 
hour! We look for the floating palace ; it is sinking and passengers 
are leaping overboard, or climbing to the upper deck. The river is 
strewn with broken planks and freight. The pilot had missed his 
course just a little and discovered it too late, and the boat had struck 
a pier, cutting a broad slice off from stem to stern, carrying with it 
one of her wheels, breaking all connection with steering apparatus. 
The boat was left to the mercy of the current which was rapidly 
sweeping her down stream and she was rapidly sinking to the bottom. 
In less than five minutes the magnificent palace had gone to pieces 
and rested on the bed of the river. At the stern a man, a crimi- 
nal in the hands of the law, being carried to prison, had been 
chained. When the passengers were fleeing for safety to the upper 
deck he was fast. The waters gathered about his feet as the boat 
was sinking. He could not break the chain ; the iron bolt would 



KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 119 

not give way. He struggled in his terror; in his desperation he 
pulled hard to break away from his fastenings. The chain he could 
not break. He cries for help, u Oh, save me! help! help!" There 
were none to help. No one could help. In his agony, in his des- 
pair, crying for help, the waters closed over his head and he went 
to the bottom chained fast. How terrible are the final consequences 
of the slighest departure from the pathway of virtue. How easily 
could the first step towards the final catastrophe been left untaken. 
The demon of drink weaves a web around the feet of its devo- 
tees so quietly, silently, that the poor victim knows it not until 
he arrives at the verge of the awful abyss which yawns to receive 
him. In his horror he awakes for a moment to behold the awful fate 
that is looking him squarely, sternly, in the face, and in his despe- 
ration he makes one mighty struggle to break the bonds — the iron 
bonds that have bound him — but in vain. Once a prattling child, 
the bright eyed boy, the mother's pride, who so often had nestled on 
a fond mother's lap, and who had so often looked in his bright face, 
and on whom she had placed her hopes to lead her gently along 
down the declining years of her life, as she was leading him so lov- 
ingly, so gently up to his years of strength, to manhood, to fill an 
honored place in the ranks of the good and true, how terrible the 
revelation. Swept away forever, and she mourns over the grave of 
her fond hopes, buried beyond recovery, and darkness gathers around 
her lonely door. Vainly she listens for the footsteps that come not — 
looking for and welcoming the grim messenger that will bear her 
to a gentle resting place, where unwelcome scenes and disappointed 
hopes will be forgotten. 

Young man, where do you stand ? Are your feet in the meshes of 
that web ? 

"WANTED — A BOY TO ATTEND BAR." 

We have often seen in the newspapers notices similar to this, and 
one of the requirements often added thereto was, that the applicant 
must not use liquor. Sober men, yes, temperance men or boys only, 
are wanted to deal out the soul-destroying poison. Here is a tem- 
perance lecture from the drunkard-makers themselves. Why is it 
that saloon keepers, and liquor sellers desire total abstinence men as 
their employes? If liquor is of any benefit to men in other em- 



120 KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 

ploynients why is it not beneficial to him who deals it out? The 
seller of liquor knows full well the value of temperance, when prac- 
ticed by those he employs and trusts; and also the curse it brings 
upon those who are addicted to its use. 

Mr. Lill, the well-known Chicago brewer before the great fire, 
when burned out upon that event, was afterwards asked if he in- 
tended to rebuild. He replied, " No ; I have seen all I care to see 
of the business." "But what will the people do for want of LilTs 
ale ? " they asked. His answer was : " Go without it ; it will be bet- 
ter for them." 

Jay Gould, the greatest railroad magnate in the world, does not 
use, nor did he ever use, liquors of any kind, or tobacco in any form. 
The man who can so manipulate financial atfairs as to make three 
million dollars at one grand stroke, keeps his head clear from the 
fumes and fogs of liquor and tobacco. 

General Grant, at the banquet given in his honor in Chicago, 
turned his glass bottom side up, and kept it so. He does not use 
liquors. He told the professors at Girard College, in Philadelphia, 
not to let the students of that institution use tobacco in any form. 
Yet General Grant is an inveterate smoker. If it is good for a man 
to smoke tobacco, why does he give advice against its use? 

The commander of the Annapolis Naval School advises his stu- 
dents to not use tobacco in any form, and says: "No gentlemen will 
be seen smoking on the street." 

Dr. Dudley A Sargent, director of the Harvard gymnasium, says 
that of the large number of students he has already examined, at 
least one-half suffer to a considerable, and in many cases to an 
alarming extent, from palpitation and other affections of the heart, 
caused by excessive cigarette smoking, and by drinking strong 
coffee. 

P. T. Barnum, the "greatest showman on earth," who is now 
" three score and ten," was lately congratulated by a friend as being 
"just as hale and hearty as he was ten years ago." Mr. Barnum 
replied : " I ought not to be, my dear sir. I am an old mm. I'm 
eeventy, though you'd hardly believe it. But I gave up rum and 
tobacco years ago. I haven't smoked a cigar for eighteen years, nor 
have I tasted a drop of liquor for many more years. That has kept 
me young and hearty." 



KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 121 

TEMPERANCE. 

One of the best and strongest arguments against the use of liquors 
or stimulants of any kind, is the fact that trainers of prize fighters, 
teachers of the science of mauling with the fists, to bring out full 
muscular development and power of endurance, require their stu- 
dents to abstain from the use of liquors or stimulants of every kind. 
Even coffee and tobacco are forbidden. Occasionally a cup of 
weak black tea is allowed. The trainers of young men for rowing 
matches impose the same restrictions upon their pupils. If liquor 
is good for the system, if it gives strength, and powers of endurance, 
why do these professors of the " manly art " forbid its use. 

TOBACCO AS VILE AS WHISKY. 

Whisky drinking is a terrible evil, a curse, and the use of tobacco 
is but one step behind, at the farthest, on the road to ruin. A young 
man commences with the cigar; smoking creates thirst; but he is a 
fashionable young man — " no vile whisky for him ; wine is the only 
thing fit to drink." Yes, but we can right here tell a sad tale of a 
young man of this city, (now dead), who went from a glass of wine 
down, down to the lowest den on Front street to quench his burning 
thirst for — 40 rod whisky. It was the first glass of wine that made 
him a drunkard. It is the first glass of liquor that makes any man 
a drunkard. Cigars and wine always keep close company. 

To us the breath of a man who uses liquor is not worse than the 
man who is constantly breathing out the most vile, sickening, nau- 
seating and deadly emanations of the fumes of some cigar or 
villainous old pipe; whose person presents the most disgusting ap- 
pearance. We pity the wife of a drunkard and none the less the 
wife of an inveterate tobacco eater. We are happy to know that 
there are ladies in Davenport, Des Moines, St. Louis and other cities 
at whose homes no tobacco user can find a welcome. 

We are glad to know that no minister can now enter the Metho- 
dist pulpit in Iowa who uses tobacco in any form. Tobacco users 
are precisely on the same ground that whisky drinkers occupy. 
Each acknowledges fully the use is a bad habit and injurious, and 
wish they could leave off and would if they could. When you ask 
a man to leave off using tobacco, and he replies that he can't, tell 
him it is because he will not — that is all. 



122 KENT'S NEW COMMENT AMY. 

How can temperance reformers expect to reform the drunkard, 
when the habit of using tobacco has coiled around them a chain so 
tight and strong that they are powerless, that they cannot sunder it. 
Then tobacco is the greater tyrant, the greater evil. " Oh, I shall 
die if I leave off." Die then, we say, the sooner the better, though 
we cannot find in the Bible any place for them in heaven, for "no 
drunfoirds" can enter, nor anything "that is filthy." If that does 
not mean tobacco users we cannot read correctly. " Oh, my doctor 
says I ought to use it." Yes, doctors give prussic acid and other 
deadly poisons. Doctors use it ! Yes, they use whisky, too. Some 
doctors have neither sense or reason. We know one who claims he 
has " cut up people by the score, and he never found a soul, and didn't 
believe there was any." Yet some of the medical talent say that 
"tobacco kills as many people as whisky." We never bought or 
knew the taste of whisky, or used tobacco in any form, but believe 
they are alike a terrible curse to our land, and the cause of all, or 
nearly all, the woes human flesh is heir to. 

We recently visited that great, noble institution, Cooper Institute, 
New York City, where hundreds of young men and women are en- 
joying its most liberal advantages. Its varied scientific courses, the 
weekly lectures and its great library are all free. The annual cost 
to Mr. Cooper is fifty-six tlwusand dollars. Yet with all his liberality 
he is in one particular a perfect despot, a tyrant. He hates tobacco. 
At every turn is a notice which reads, "The use of tobacco in this 
building, in any form, is strictly forbidden." 

We also visited the new Art Museum in Central Park, where it 
would require weeks of time to examine all its rare curiosities, its 
relics of past ages, its magnificent paintings. The building and 
the arrangement for displaying everything to the best advantage 
seemed to us a model of perfection, only marred by scores of notices 
that stared out at every one at every turn. These were notices to to- 
bacco squirtersthat if caught spitting upon the floor the police would 
at once arrest them and walk them out of the museum. The police 
were there watching for the man who dares to " spit on the floor." 

We are glad to see that railroad companies are becoming disgusted 
with tobacco eaters. Notices like this are being placed in their 
coaches : " Every tobacco chewing gentleman tcill have the gallantry to 
keep the ladies' coach clean, by riding in the forward car while chewing" 



KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 123 

Of tobacco users, J. B. T. Marsh, in the Sunday ScJtool Times, 
says: " I don't believe, other things being equal, there is any other 
class of men who show such a disregard in public for other people's 
comfort as tobacco users do. I don't mean the chewers who spit in 
country churches and leave their filthy puddles on car floors. 
They're hogs. A man would be considered a rowdy or a boor who 
should wilfully spatter mud on the clothing of a lady as she passed 
him on the sidewalk. But a lady to whom tobacco fumes are more 
offensive than mud can hardly walk the streets in these days, but 
that men who call themselves gentlemen — and who are gentlemen 
in most other respects — blow their cigar smoke into her face at 
almost every step. Smokers drive non-smokers out of the gentle- 
men's cabins on the ferry boats, and gentlemen's waiting rooms in 
railway stations, monopolizing these public rooms as coolly as if 
they only had any rights in them. I can't explain such phenomena 
except on the theory that tobacco befogs the moral sense and makes 
men specially selfish." 

If some of the inveterate tobacco eaters were compelled to get 
down on their hands and knees and lick up their filth expectorated 
on the floor of an elegant coach, it would do them good. We wish 
railroad officials had the power to make them do it. 

The consumers of tobacco are specially liable to heart disease; so 
say the best medical writers on the subject. 

******* 
" Scent to match thy rich perfume 

Chemic art did ne'er presume,— 

Through her quaint alembic strain, 

None so sovereign to the brain. 

Nature that did in thee excel, 

Framed again no second smell. 

Roses, violets, but toys 

For the smaller sort of boys, 

Or for greener damsels meant; 

Thou art the only manly scent. " 

" Stinkingest of the stinking kind! 
Filth of the mouth and fog of the mind! 
Africa, that brags her foyson, 
Breeds no such prodigious poison! 1 ' 

—Charles Lamb' 8 "Farewell to Tobacco" 



THE MAGNITUDE OF TRIFLES. 

One of the prime causes of failure, is the ignoring of small things 
in detail — the insignificant matters as they are styled. The forget- 
ting or neglecting to dot an u i" or cross a"t" has swept away 
fortunes. The failure to close a door or to turn a key has laid great 
blocks of buildings in ashes, causing not only the loss of the prop- 
erty, but throwing hundreds of poor people out of employment, to 
suffer therefrom. The old story, of the loss of the nail from the 
shoe of the horse, where horse, rider and battle were lost, is true, in 
fact, in a thousand ways. It is the grain of sand that turns the scale. 
It is the ounces that make the pounds, and the pounds that make 
the tons; the cents that make the dollars, the dollars that make the 
fortunes. A flake of snow comes sailing gracefully down — " the 
beautiful snow." A breath will dissolve the falling flake into a 
drop, causing it to weep. Another and another of the tiny little 
white winged messenger falls upon the ground and in a little while 
everything is mantled in snowy drapery. How gracefully it sits 
upon the trees and every thing, hiding the many unsightly objects 
with its snowy whiteness. A charming sight. Look at a flake 
under a glass. What artist can design so unique a pattern. It is 
perfection. How innocent and so harmless. They keep coming. 
The winged messengers are light as a feather. They drop upon the 
roofs of all the buildings, each little flake adds its mite. Happy 
children! They lie down close together in their downy bed. No 
quarreling, as silently they take their places, adding slowly to the 
weight, until down goes the roof upon the worshippers below, and 
scores are crushed to death. Many people are crippled for life by 
the "beautiful snow," that came so noiseless down and rested upon 
the roof. 

The iron horse sweeps through the fleecy whiteness, whirling and 
crushing the beautiful crystals under its heavy wheels. It laughs 
to see them light upon its hot boiler, and dissolve in tears. They 
come down all the same and cover the track. The iron horse be- 
gins to tire, as the snow packs around the rails, and from a forty 
mile pace it comes down to twenty, to ten, to one, to a dead stop. 



KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 125 

It is "snow bound," and can go neither forward nor backward. It 
snorts and puffs and blows, but it is no go. The snow has bound it 
fast; it is a prisoner. So silently gathers around one's footsteps, 
imperceptible influences for good or evil. Only by watching closely 
the pathway can we know whither they are leading us. 

TRIFLES — LITTLE THINGS. 

Trifles, lighter than air turn the scales for weal or woe, deciding 
the destinies of nations and of individuals. The greatest events in 
the world's history turn on the smallest pivot. There are no such 
things as little things or little moments, when weighed in the scales 
of the mighty possibilities. The briefest point of time marked by 
the ticking of the clock, is fraught with momentous consequences, 
and there is often crowded into one of those almost inconceivable 
spaces of time the greatest events of the world's history. It is but 
yes or no that sheaths the sword or draws it, to deluge the world in 
blood. It was but the falling of a tear drop that made Washington 
the father of his country, the first president of the United States. It 
is but the moving of a lever a few inches that saves a train from a 
plunge into the abyss. It is on the breaking of a hair spring in a 
conductor's watch and two minutes silence, and two crowded express 
trains, under fearful headway, come together; an awful wreck re- 
sults ; the wounded, and the dying, fill the air with their wails of 
pain and anguish. Upon the breaking of so small a thing as a 
hair spring of a watch the effect is felt around the world. Tears 
and sorrow darken scores of happy homes, mourning for the loved 
ones who are never to return ; happy families are scattered to meet 
no more, and tender feet must travel life's rough journey alone in 
sorrow's darkening pathway. 

THE CHICAGO FIRE. 

The morning after the great fire that laid Chicago in ashes, we 
walked amid the ruins of palatial residences, elegant churches, 
stately hotels, and the great blocks of the merchant princes, viewing 
the desolation. Here and there a tall column or chimney stood in 
solemn silence, monuments of departed glory and blasted hopes. 
Streets were blocked and made impassable by the debris. It baffles 
all description, the utter desolation and ruin that reigned supreme 



126 KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 

At night the scene changed. The blackness and darkness was 
lighted like as by ten thousand camp fires, blazing from ten 
thousand cellars, from coal that had been laid in for winter; while 
on the wharves acres of anthracite coal was one living mass of fire, 
casting a wiercl and ghostly glare that was hideous to behold. This 
terrible calamity, the burning up of 2,100 acres of costly business 
blocks and happy homes, all came from the burning of a little cow- 
stable, fired by a cow kicking over a lamp. One little match not 
larger than a pin head lighted the lamp. Several hundred million 
dollars worth of property were consumed ; many lives were lost in 
the conflagration, and hundreds died from the terrible ordeal they 
passed through. Thousands of happy homes were broken up and 
ruined. Business men, men who had made their fortunes and re- 
tired to spend their days in quiet enjoyment of delightful homes, 
were ruined, made penniless, and dependent on charity for bread 
and shelter. Broken-hearted some became insane, others committed 
suicide. This awful calamity, the result of firing a single match ! 
Whisky lighted the match. Friends from the old country must be 
entertained; a milk punch must be made, and Mother O'Leary's 
cow must furnish the milk ; and the cow was waited upon. New 
hands attempted to do the milking, the cow objected, and let her 
heels fly, and the lamp is broken. A match^ a stroke of the hand, 
so little a thing, a flash and it is done. What possibilities are 
crowded into a single beat of the pendulum. 

A CITY DESTROYED. 

Many years ago, a dyke was built on the coast of Holland to keep 
out the sea from the low lands, which became the homes of happy 
families and industrious farmers. A city was built. Everybody 
dwelt apparently in perfect security. Suddenly the dyke gave way, 
and the sea rolled in upon the farmers, quickly swallowing up their 
lands and homes. The waves rolled against the city. Great blocks 
of buildings went down before their resistless fury. Every succeed- 
ing wave rose higher and higher, accumulating -greater power, as 
they rolled on. What one-half hour before were beautiful fields of 
waving grain, and happy homes, the thronged streets and crowded 
market places of a great city, became the home of the sea. The 
noise and bustle of the city was hushed into silence. As the great 



KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 127 

waves rolled on in their grandeur, they chanted a requiem over the 
dead buried beneath their waves, in the deep diapason notes of old 
ocean. The low, sad wail of woe was wafted landward, over hill 
and dale and the dark mantle of mourning was seen everywhere in 
Holland. For a century tears ceased not to fall over buried hopes 
and bright anticipations, for a morrow that came not. And why 
this awful calamity? A little animal, a muskrat, digs a little hole 
in the dyke and the water follows it and trickles through the dyke. 
A handful of clay would have closed it up. It increases in size by 
the wear of the water. Nobody is alarmed. No attention is paid 
to it. Bye-and-bye the tide rolls in; the dyke yields to the pressure, 
and the little hole of the muskrat becomes an immense gateway to 
let the floods in upon the careless inhabitants. Too late they awake 
from their sleepy lethargy. 

It was but a little thing that opened the way for the sea. It is but 
a little thing that turns a young man from the right to the wrong. 
It is but a little word, a little deed, at the right or wrong time, that 
leads on to momentous results for good or evil. The great scales 
turn on a very small pivot, great events hinge upon the tick of the 
watch, the swing of the pendulum. 

FOURTH OF JULY TIME. 

The city of Portland, Maine, was visited by a most disastrous fire 
on one fourth of July A little boy lights a fire-cracker, gives it a 
"send off," and it falls upon a roof of a house. The wind fans it 
into a blaze; it burns the house; the wind drives the sparks to ad- 
joining houses, setting them on fire. The wind increases and sweeps 
the fire along furiously; it leaps from house to house from street to 
street until a great portion of the city is in ashes. The glorious fourth 
ends in a night of sadness, of sorrow, of desolation and death. 
Hundreds of happy homes and happy families are ruined, all to 
gratify the sport and fun of a little boy with a fire-cracker. The 
effect of that little boy's fun was felt that day, to-day, and will be 
felt for all time. It killed the brightest hopes of thousands, took 
from them their property, their all. Happy families were broken 
up, some of the members carried to their last resting places; others 
were left to linger in pain and sorrow, while some became insane 
and went to the insane asylum, raving maniacs, and some committed 



128 KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 

suicide. One little act of one little boy with one little fire-cracker 
and one little match, set in motion a train of events, the results of 
which will never cease — never end. What are trifles when weighed 
in the scales of mighty possibilities? The least divergence of a 
millionth part of an inch at the outset. 

A worm is a trifle compared to a lion or a whale, yet it has sunk 
many a ship with its little auger. The little insect that builds the 
coral reefs on the bottom of the ocean is possessed of but little 
physical strength, yet it works on until it forms a sea wall, over 
which the great ships cannot sail ; and many have been lost by run- 
ning upon them. 

A lame man was walking in Pittsburgh one day when the walks 
were slippery, and he fell and his hat rolled along the sidewalk. A 
boy came along and. gave it a kick, sending it out into the street. 
Another boy came along, helped the poor man up, picked up his 
hat, and assisted him to his hotel. He asked the boy his name, and 
thanked him for his kindness and assistance. One day about a 
month after, there came a draft for the boy who didn't kick the 
lame man's hat, for one thousand dollars. It was a little thing, but 
it paid. 

It has been calculated that if a single grain of wheat produces 
fifty grains in one year's growth, and these and succeeding crops be 
counted, and yield proportionately, the produce of the twelfth }^ear 
would suffice to supply all the inhabitants of the earth for a life- 
time ; in twelve years the single grain will have multiplied itself 
244,140,625,000,000 times. 

DISCOVERY OF STEAM. 

About one hundred and thirty years ago a little boy came in from 
play and sat down on a bench in the chimney corner of his mother's 
kitchen, " tired and hungry." While waiting and watching his 
mother prepare the supper, his attention was attracted to the sing- 
ing of the tea kettle, which hung on the crane over the fire in the 
old-fashioned fire-place. Soon the water within was boiling, and hot 
steam poured out of the nose of the kettle. As the water became 
hotter, faster it generated into steam, faster than it could escape out 
of the nose, and it forced up the lid and kept it dancing to the 
music of the escaping vapor as it rose and fell. Soon the supper 



KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 129 

was ready, and the family excepting the little boy were seated at the 
table and had commenced eating. 

Several times the mother had called her Utile boy to u come to 
supper, Jimmy," but Jimmy did not come, and she wondered why 
that boy didn't come to his supper, when he was so tired and hun- 
gry. Quietly she left the table, and stepped to the kitchen door, 
which was standing ajar, and looked in to see what " that boy was up 
to." He was still sitting on the bench watching the u steaming ket- 
tle," and its " dancing lid," spell-bound. His young and inquisitive 
mind was trying to solve the reason why the tea kettle lid should 
keep "hopping up and down." He solved the mystery by discov- 
ering that it was from the power that was in the steam. He was the 
first one to "harness up" this new found power and bid it to "turn 
the wheel ; " and from that day to this it has not refused to obey the 
order with alacrity. 

So to that little boy, James Watt, sitting on a bench in the chim- 
ney corner, waiting for his supper, the world is indebted for the dis- 
covery of the power there is in steam. And what a mighty power! 
What would become of the railroads, the steamships, and the ten 
thousaud industries of the world of which steam is now the propelling 
power, should it cease to "turn the wheel," or fire and water should 
fail to generate steam ? Every wheel, every shaft, every spindle now 
driven by steam, would come to a stand-still. The hum of the man- 
ufactories of the world would be hushed into silence. Millions of 
people would be tlnown out of employment, millions would be 
driven to the wall, to starvation, to death. A greater calamity is 
hardly possible to conceive. 

Steam not only affords employment to a host of people, but it is a 
great civilizer of nations; it is the world's best educator. Where- 
ever goes the " steam wagon," goes along with it light and intelli- 
gence, dispelling the ignorance and superstition of the darker ages. 

ELECTRICITY — ITS POWER. 

Dr. Franklin sent up his little silk kite to the clouds, while a 
thunder storm was passing over the city of Philadelphia. A frail 
string held the kite under his control. He placed a door key on the 
string, and with that key he unlocked the doors to a new world — 
the world of electricity — and left them unlocked. Dr. Morse was 
9 vuu! U 



130 KENTS NEW COMMENTARY. 

anxious to explore this new world, to learn of its elements. He soon 
became acquainted with its peculiarities, its fondness to " play upon 
the wires," its willingness to become a very obedient servant, and he 
"harnessed up the lightning." He invented an automatic machine 
which recorded each pulsation as it ran to and fro upon the wires. 
And it became the swift messenger of thought, and wires now encir- 
cle the globe, and swift as the lightning's flash, flashes tidings 
around the world. To Professors Gray, Bell and Edison, is accred- 
ited the honor of making it " talk," not only in one language, but it 
readily responds in any language addressed with equal fluency. It 
is a ready messenger for all, at all seasons, anywhere, over trackless 
deserts, over mountains or under oceans. Neither heat or cold im- 
pedes its flight. It never tires or grows weary. 

The telephone is the "mystery of mysteries." How the voice 
sweeps along the wire through storm and tempest, passing by all the 
babel and noises of a great city, and yet does not lose its way or be- 
come confused or unrecognizable as it enters a quiet home, is to us 
incomprehensible. Electricity, instead of being a dreaded foe to 
mankind has proved to be its best friend and servant; one we cannot 
dispense with. It has greater good to render yet to be developed. 
It is to be the great luminator, to light up the darkest night into 
the dazzling brilliancy of the sun in its strength. It is invaluable 
as a remedial agent. Its healing powers surpass all medicines 
known to the medical profession. 

Yet the greatest marvel is still to come. The telephone permits us 
to converse with friends hundreds of miles away, but the newly dis- 
covered diaphone brings friends face to face, so that we can not 
only hear their voices, but see them as well. It is too incredible to 
believe, but the fact is nevertheless affirmed. What would Frank- 
lin or Morse say if they could return to earth and see what wonder- 
ful advancements have been made in the uses and appliances of 
electricity since they left the world. And yet how insignificant 
were the appliances by which Dr. Franklin obtained a practical 
demonstration of the adaptability of this marvelous agent to be- 
come so willing a servant to man. How immense is the wealth it 
has added to the world's assets. And yet it cannot be bottled 
up and packed away in warehouses for railroad kings and stock job- 
bers to buy and sell. It is too abundant, it pervades all space and 



KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY, 131 

is free as the mountain air. Speculators cannot get up "a corner 7 ' 
on lightning. They can patent as many "harnesses" as they please, 
but they cannot "chain up" the lightning, or put it under a pad- 
lock. Nothing in the forces of nature surpasses electricity in its 
intrinsic value to the welfare of the human race. 

There are no "little things," when linked to the mighty possibil- 
ities enveloped in the unknown future. No discovery in nature 
dwindles away as its secrets are unfolded and revealed to human 
conception. But each step advances humanity upward to a greater 
and grander existence as they are unfolded to our comprehension. 
So it will be for all time, to all eternity. 

In 1866 the Emperor of Russia had a narrow escape from assas- 
sination, as he was about to step into his carriage. An assassin had 
leveled his revolver at the czar, when his arm was instantly struck 
up by a serf standing near, and the pistol was discharged in the air. 
At evening the serf was brought into the presence of the Emperor, 
and by him was informed that he had been elevated to the rank and 
dignity of a nobleman. It was a trifling thing for the serf to do, 
but it paid him to be forever after a Russian nobleman. 

It always pays to do a good deed. It is a good investment. It re- 
turns the largest of dividends. 

"Think nought a trifle, though it small appear,— 
Small sands the mountain, moments make the year, 

And trifles life."" —Young. 



HAPPY HOMES. 

A WIFE. 

" I want (who does not want?) a wife,— 
Affectionate and fair; 
To solace all the woes of life, 

And all its joys to share. 
Of temper sweet, of yielding will, 

Of fiim, yet placid, mind, — 
With all my faults to love me still, 
With sentiment refined. 11 

—John Quincy Adams. 

Every young man needs a home of his own. If he is wise he will 
in due time, have one. The sooner he makes up his mind to that 
fact the better it will be for him. A home should be the best place 
on earth. A delightful retreat to fly to when the day's labors are 
over; where the care and perplexities of business find no lodging 
place. If a home is not pleasant, the husband will seek other places 
to spend his evenings. We know of men who belong to ever}' lodge, 
club and society there are to belong to, and are ready to watch with 
a "sick brother" once a week, simply because the house they eat 
and sleep in is not a home. It is wonderful how long a "sick 
brother" needs watchers, how he holds on to life. We have known 
of that sick brother for a quarter of a century; we heard of him 
before we came to the West; and he " still lives." He never will die 
until the last man of the last club and lodge is dead and buried. 

A New Hampshire woman has a husband who is addicted to join- 
ing secret societies. One of her exasperated outbursts is thus re- 
ported: " Jine! He'd jine anything. There can't nothing come 
along that's dark and sly and hidden, but he'll jine it. If anybody 
should get up a society to burn his house down, he'd jine it just as 
soon as he could get in, and if he had to pay to get in he'd go all 
the suddener." 

To have a happy home there must be a similarity of tastes between 
husband and wife, a congeniality of desires and aspirations. If the 



KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY, 133 

husband is an ignoramus, and the wife a lady of refinement and 
culture, there will not be much social enjoyment around the even- 
ing lamp. 

The Arabs have a tradition that the human race was created in 
halves and each half sent out traveling around the world to find its 
other half, and if the right half was found happiness was the inev- 
itable result. If the wrong one was selected — two odd halves — 
there was no match and no happiness. 

A young man is very unwise to seek to enter into society that he 
has no relish for, and cannot enjoy. True aspiration to rise above 
one's natural surroundings is very commendable ; but to aspire lo 
move in society entirely beyond one's capacity for enjoyment would 
only make him miserable. A man would be foolish to run after 
a railroad train that he never could overtake. Equally foolish is it 
for him to try to enter into society that he cannot and never will at- 
tain to. This excludes no one from enjoying happiness to his fullest 
capacity. If you wish to rise above your fellows, you have got 
something to do. Hard work and constant study, will bring any 
man into a higher and better life. Beaconsfield did not reach his 
place as chief premier of Eagland, by indolence, or by waiting for 
luck to elevate him to that high position. Far from it. He be- 
longed to the "despised race," — was a Jew; and even after he took 
his seat in Parliament, was "hissed" down on his first speech, 
They do not hiss at him now. There is a preparation process re- 
quired of every one who wishes to rise above his environment. If he 
is not willing to submit to the drill, he cannot expect promotion, 

FALLING IN LOVE. # 

Falling in love and marrying at sight is just as good as a pro- 
longed courtship, provided it should prove to be a happy union. A 
man in the State of Michigan recently fell in love with a young 
lady and married her on the same day. She was not inclined to say 
more than "yes" or u no," and he attributed it to her modesty. It 
increased the value of the prize for him. He was economical, and 
was quite satisfied with getting a wife with no lost time at courting, 
or in neckties; but, unfortunately for him, he quickly changed his 
mind when he found his neck was tied with a tie he could not untie. 
He had married a foolish girl — an idiot. 



134 KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 

A few da}^s ago a young lady in Illinois said she would be mar- 
ried in fifteen minutes if she could find the man. A friend hap- 
pened to know a " fifteen minute" man and brought him in and 
they were married. A fifteen minute courtship is just as good, or 
better, than a fifteen year courtship, if the right halves make the 
match. If they should not match, what then? It is dangerous 
business to fall in love at sight. Better go slow. 

We commend the prudence of the young man in the state of Con- 
necticut, who, after he had courted his lady love seven years, asked 
her, " Nellie, dear, do you think it would be improper or wrong for 
us now to exchange a kiss ? " We presume she did not. 

We read of a man w T ho fell in love with a " dummy " in a show 
window. We think it was not reciprocated, consequently no harm 
came of it. 

A young lady who was rescued from a watery grave, and when 
restored to her senses, declared she would marry her rescuer at all 
hazards, was not a little taken back to learn that it was a Newfound- 
land dog that had saved her life. 

All matches are not made in heaven. Those that have a good 
deal of fire and brimstone in their composition are not made there. 
Green hands cannot exercise too much caution about fooling with 
dangerous compounds. Some of these unequal matches " go off," 
and somebody gets hurt. 

BUSINESS IS BUSINESS. 

In the choice of a partner a young man should exercise the 
same prudence and caution that he would in any other business 
relation. It comes right down to that with all sensible psrsons. 
Every one should go about it in a straight- forward way and not go 
sneaking around as though one was ashamed of his job, or was 
going to do some mean thing. When a man of business enters into 
a co-partnership he goes into it intelligently, consults those who can 
advise him, and can judge whether it would be a good move for 
him. After obtaining all the advice and the best counsel, he exer- 
cises his best judgment before he commits himself. A life partner- 
ship is of vastly more importance than that of a mere business 
partnership. One is for life, the other may be terminated at any 
time, or at any specified time. A young man cannot be too careful 



KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 135 

about forming a life partnership. His whole life is to be modified. 
It is the greatest event that will ever come to hi in. He needs there- 
fore to exercise the utmost care and caution in selecting a life partner. 
Because a lady can sing and play the piano well, or has a pretty 
face, dances gracefully, has a tine flow of language, reads French, 
sings in Italian, and dreams in Spanish, who has all the showy ac- 
complishments of a fashionable young lady, it does not follow that 
she is a proper helpmate for a young man. Splendid parlor orna- 
ments may captivate, and lead young men to decide thoughtlessly 
by such exhibitions of showy talents, but they are very certain to 
bring disappointment and miserable homes. 

THE MODEKN BELLE. 

" She sits in a fashionable parlor, 

And rocks in her easy chair: 
She is clad in her silks and satins, 

And jewels are in her hair; 
She winks and giggles and simpers, 

And simpers and giggles and winks; 
And though she talks but little. 

'Tis a great deal more than she thinks. 

"She lies in bed in the morning 

Till near the hour of noon, 
Then comes down snapping and snarling 

Because she was called so soon; 
Her hair is slill in papers, 

Her cheeks still fresh with paint,— 
Remains of her last night's blushes, 

Before she intended to faint. 

u She falls in love with a fellow 

Who swells with a foreign air; 
He marries her for her money, 

She marries him for his hair; 
One of the very best matches, — 

Both aie well mated in life; 
She's got a fool for a husband, 

lie's got a fool for- a wife ! " —Stark, 

There are society girls and home girls. One the kind that appear 
best abroad — the girls that are good for parties, visits, balls, etc., 
whose chief delight is in such things. The other the kind that ap- 



136 KENT'S NEW COMMENT ATiY. 

pear best at home — the girls that are cheerful and useful in the 
dining-room, the sick room and the precincts of home. They differ 
widely in character. One is frequently a torment at home; the 
other is a blessing. One is a moth, consuming everything about her; 
the other is a sunbeam, inspiring life and goodness all along the 
pathway. Now it does not necessarily follow that there shall be 
two classes of girls. The right education would modify them both 
a little, and unite their characters in one. 

There are other accomplishments of much greater value to a young 
man who has to depend upon his own labor for living. A "society 
lady" would be out of place in his home. Such a wife would be 
miserable unless in the whirlpool of excitement, giving or attending 
fashionable parties weekly, and would not add to his happiness. A 
wife who is ignorant of the entire household duties, who is not mis- 
tress of every department, is not qualified to take charge of her 
home. We hear young ladies, even married ladies, boast that they 
do not know how to prepare a dinner. For a rich man with plenty 
of servants, it is all very well. He can afford it. A wasteful house- 
keeper will ruin any young man. If a young lady has been accus- 
tomed to extravagance, plenty of everything to do with, and to 
6pend, it will be one of the hardest lessons for her to learn, if ever 
learned, when necessity compels her to exercise economy. 

GOOD HOUSEKEEPERS ARE A RARITY. 

To be a neat housekeeper, a first class cook, without wastefulness, 
is a rare gift. The French people excel in making the best out of 
the least and poorest material. Our line of business has allowed us 
unusual privileges of knowing how all classes of people live. We 
have been from cellar to attic in a thousand homes. We could tell 
some awful tales about the way some homes are kept among the ban 
ton. We have seen a lady on the street dressed like a queen in her 
silks and satins, whose piano was covered with dust so thick you 
could not tell what wood it was male of; have seen the same lady 
with one fell swoop of her arm attempt to sweep the dust off, all in 
her street costume of silks. We have been into a costly mansion, 
costing fifty thousand dollars to build, where a square yard of pedi- 
gree, elegantly framed, was hanging on the wall in the hall, and the 
lady in silks reclining on an elegant sofa in the parlor. We saw 



KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 137 

the dining room and the kitchen so dirty and filthy that it made us 
disgusted to look around. At the door was thrown out to the dogs, 
nice cake, rich cuts of beef, large loaves of bread, etc., all spoiled in 
baking. Still the square yard of pedigree hung on the wall in the 
front hall. We passed through the chambers and saw even greater 
sights. We saw the labors of numerous spiders, elaborate festoons 
that graced every corner; the delicate network sweeping across 
from corner to corner, ornamented with the "dust of ages." The 
square yard of pedigree hung on the wall in the front hall all the 
same. We came to the conclusion that a square yard of pedigree in 
the front hall, was not a diploma for superior housekeeping accom- 
plishments. Don't go too much on " pedigree." 

A good education, the very best that can be secured, is a very de- 
sirable accomplishment for a young lady. But when she knows 
more French than she does of domestic economy, in our opinion, 
she has too much education to fill the place of a good housewife 
It is not necessary that she do all the hard drudgery of the kitchen, 
but that all the appointments of the kitchen may be properly car- 
ried out, economically as well as hygienical ly, is a science superior 
to all the knowledge found in books. The knowledge of French or 
Italian will not guarantee good bread or light biscuit, or cook a 
beefsteak to a turn. It is an independent branch of education, and 
one's health and happiness is dependent upon the way the food is 
prepared every day and three times each day. It is what we eat that 
makes us hearty, robust and strong, or weak and puny. A thousand 
ills are to be averted or endured by the way food is prepared in the 
kitchen. Charging up to Providence, sickness, indigestion, dyspep- 
sia, and other kindred ills, is simply wickedness, when all these ills 
are the direct results of villainous cooking. The most nutritious 
and easily digested food may be converted into the most unwhole- 
some and indigestible, by the carelessness and ignorance of the 
cook. If you wish to avoid expense, waste, sickness, doctor's bills, 
etc., you must have the very best information obtainable on the 
subject. 

We are very glad to know that the subject has been recently 
brought before the public and is becoming quite popular, and 
schools established, where the very best instructions and practice 
are given in the science of cooking. That it has been committed so 



138 KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 

long to the hands' of the lowest and most ignorant class of servants 
to prepare the daily food for the family, is one of the mysterious 
problems that we cannot solve on any enlightened hypothesis to us 
known. The only good that comes from it is, that it affords the 
doctors, druggists, and undertakers much better incomes. It would 
be too bad to let them die for want of business. So their patients 
are sick and die that they may live. The cooks are in league with 
the doctors. 

WHAT IOWA GIRLS ARE TAUGHT. 

At the Iowa Agricultural college every girl in the junior class has 
learned how to make good bread, weighing and measuring her in- 
gredients, mixing, kneading and baking, and regulating her fire. 
Each has also been taught to make yeast and make biscuit, pudding, 
pies, and cakes of various kinds; how to cook a roast, broil a steak, 
and make a fragrant cup of coffee ; how to stuff and roast a turkey, 
make oyster soup, prepare a stock for other soups, steam and mash 
potatoes so that they will melt in the mouth, and, in short, to get up 
a first class meal, combining both substantial and fancy dishes, in 
good style. Theory and manual skill have gone hand in hand. If 
there is anything that challenges the unlimited respect and devotion 
of the masculine mind it is ability in woman to order well her own 
household. 

An education cannot be said to be finished when totally ignorant 
of the very first laws ot health. Perhaps our readers may ask what 
this has to do with u love, courtship and happy homes." It has 
everything to do with it. No man can be happy if he has to eat 
sole leather, fried in burnt grease, or eat bread that is as indigestible 
as pig lead. A good, healthy body cannot be kept in running order 
whenever laden with a great burden that is daily reducing its 
strength, sapping its life blood. When a bank has to draw daily on 
its capital to meet running expenses, it is only a matter of time how 
long it can continue to do business. When one's sj^steni is tasked 
beyond its powers of endurance, that moment it begins to wear out. 

Good wholesome food, properly prepared, produces good blood, 
which nourishes brain, bone and muscle. Happiness to every 
family has its headquarters in the culinary department of the 
kitchen. If the manipulations of the cooking process are at fault 



KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 13» 

or defective, the whole domestic economy will suffer, and unhappi- 
ness follows. A fretty and restless child destroys much comfort and 
enjoyment of a household. All this is often occasioned by the indi- 
gestible food that the child is compelled to eat. It is simply inhu- 
man to compel children to eat food that is unfit for them. We 
believe it would be a wise provision of law that no girl could 
marry without having first passed an examination and received a 
diploma certifying to her qualifications by experience and knowl- 
edge of the hygiene of the kitchen. We see no reason why laws 
should not be made to cover the proper preparation of food as well as 
the adulterations of it. It is due to the health of the community 
that only pure articles of food shall be sold and used ; also that pure 
articles of food shall not be converted into poison. One is as bad as 
the other. The time is near at hand when it will be fashionable, 
when it will be a great acquisition, to know how to prepare the 
choicest dishes for those in health, as also for the invalid ; when the 
highest art will be, not to know how to decorate a plate, but how to 
prepare the food that is to grace it. Elegant service, with beautiful 
and appropriate designs, are pleasing to look upon but will not sat- 
isfy the cravings of a hungry man one iota, or make a miserably 
cooked dinner one particle better. Muddy coffee will not taste any 
better in gold cups. 

A good English education and the knowledge of domestic econ- 
omy, will add more to a young man's happiness than all the foreign 
languages or polite accomplishments that it is possible for any one 
young lady to be the master of. If a young lady's conversational 
powers are limited to a few stereotyped phrases, as "awful mean," 
" horrid," "ugly," &c, a little schooling would add to her ability to 
use more elegant language. We have heard some very coarse ex- 
pressions from ladies occupying costly mansions, living in good 
style. Such people purchase their libraries by the square yard, and 
estimate their value by the quantity of gilt on the back of the covers, 
not by the contents. 

UNHAPPILY MATED. 

We have said what we have on the dark side of wedded life that 
each young man may realize the fact that it is all a lottery if he 
should marry on an evening's acquaintance. We know of a case 



140 KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 

where a young man courted and married a young lady without let- 
ting any of his friends know of his intentions to marry. He thought 
he was doing a shrewd thing, lie found that he had not done so well 
when in two weeks after they were married he had to carry his wife 
to an insane asylum. He had married into a family where insanity 
was hereditary. He must either live with an insane wife or support 
her at the asylum. 

We know of two persons in Vermont who were married at an 
evening party because a justice offered to marry any couple without 
pay who would u stand up " then and there. Two fools "stood up n 
and were married. The longer they lived together, the greater be- 
came their disgust over their foolishness. It proved to be a miser- 
able union. 

In Massachusetts, in 1878, there were six hundred divorces, or one 
in every twenty-one marriages; Vermont had one to every fourteen; 
Rhode Island one to every eleven; Connecticut one to seventeen. 
The figures are for legal divorces obtained, while the number of 
those couples who were self-divorced, or who lived a cat and dog life, 
would reduce the number of happy marriages to less than sixty to the 
one hundred. If we could have correct data to refer to we presume 
we should find that the great majority entered into the marriage re- 
lation with little or no real personal acquaintance. The sixty thou- 
sand surplus females over the males in Mas>achusetts, may have had 
considerable to do with hasty marriages, and the equally hasty di- 
vorces in that State. 

Any young man who is not willing to consult with his mother or 
sister upon so important a matter, will stand a good chance of 
making an unfortunate alliance. Your mother or sister is better 
qualified to judge of a young lady's capabilities, and whether she 
has those traits of character and habits that would most likely con- 
duce to a happy union, more intelligently than it would be possible 
for you to know any young woman. If you refuse all advice you 
cannot expect to receive any sympathy should you make an un- 
fortunate alliance. 

The best way for every young man is to go slow and consider well 
each move he makes towards a union for life. There have been 
and are to-day some remarkable instances of that perfect unity, 
stronger than death. 



KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 141 

SOME OF THE EVIDENCES OF CONJUGAL FELICITY. 

The best way to judge of the happiness that has existed in a fam- 
ily when dissolved by death, is to see how the husband has willed 
his property, or how a wife has disposed of hers. It is an unerring 
guide. As for instance: The husband dies, willing all his properly 
to his wife, making her the sole executrix of his estate without bonds. 
Another leaves a small pittance to be doled out to his wife so long 
as she remains "bis widow," but in the event of marriage she is u cut 
off" from any further support. We know a gentleman who was not 
possessed of this world's goods, but his wife had a competence. 
She died, not leaving him a cent. 

We know of a gentleman who married ayoung lady, and he died, 
leaving all his wealth to her, and not a child to care for. It was a 
fortune, one she could not well spend during the remainder of her 
life, yet she has not found time to have a suitable monument placed 
over his grave. She has had time to visit Europe several times, 
spending two or three years abroad. She is, no doubt, waiting for a 
new style of monument. Powers, Mills, Harriet Hosmer, or Vinne 
Ream, are altogether too feeble in their conceptions of what is 
appropriate for tokens of buried hopes. She has had no time to care 
for the grave. Nature has had all the care. She has wasted no 
time on tear drops, or in its decoration. She has had time, however, 
to marry a second husband, and if we can read human nature we 
think he has by this time found out just what virtues his predecessor 
possessed, and what would be a suitable epitaph for the monument 
if it is ever erected. He probably also has learned that his name 
would be a lasting disgrace beside "my first husband," who was a 
good and true man. 

Look at another example: Mr. C. dies leaving no child, but all 
his fortune to his wife. For ten long j^ears, every day in the year, 
she visited the grave of her husband if the weather was suitable, 
or her health would allow of it. Her loving hands were ever busy 
beautifying the lot. Costly improvements were continually being 
made. Some new improvements were constantly under contempla- 
tion. 

This restriction by will of the widow should she marry, exhibits 
a very ungenerous spirit under the most charitable conclusion, 
and of the happiness existing between man and wife. Contrast it 



142 KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 

with an instance of this kind : The wife was dying; she called her 
-husband to the bedside and said M Albert, you have been a good hus- 
band to me; have given me a beautiful home, better than I ever ex- 
pected or deserved ; you will miss me, the children will miss me, 
and you will be lonely when I am gone. The children will need 
some one to care for them, and when the proper time comes I want 
you to marry again, to find some one to fill my place. It will be 
better for you, better for the children. There is my sister Alice or 
my dear friend Laura Adams, either one will make you a good 
companion. Promise me you will do as I wish, and I will die happy. 
If spirits are allowed to visit their friends, I will come to you and 
be your guardian angel. Do not put it off too long. When the 
wild flowers blossom over my grave, and the time of the singing of 
birds has come again, it will.be long enough to wait. Kiss me once 
more, you need not speak, I know it will be well. Good bye." 

We were recently in the city of Galveston, Texas, and visted the 
resting place of the dead. There are no graves but tombs are built 
upon the surface of the ground. We stopped in front of one of 
these tombs, of fine architectural design, built of beautiful marble 
which the master hand of an artist had skillfully worked out. 
Thousands of dollars had been expended upon it. The door was a 
single slab of Italian marble, in the center of which was placed a 
panel of glass, exposing the interior to view from the outside. 
Through the center of the tomb extended a hall or passage way, on 
either side of which were recesses for the reception of the caskets 
containing the dead. Suspended from the centre of the hallway 
hung a basket filled with the choicest of flowers. The rays of the 
sun lighted up the interior, dispelling all gloom. It was the palace 
tomb of a beloved wife, erected by a sorrow-stricken husband. Her 
memory was there cherished by loving tokens of fresh and fra- 
grant flowers daily brought and placed in the basket. 

We were acquainted with a gentleman in the State of Pennsyl- 
vania, who buried his wife some ten years ago, and it is impossible 
to be with him for an hour without his alluding to his great loss. 
He had been a man of active business habits, and for years before 
his wife died, she, if well, always went with him wherever his busi- 
ness called him. A happier couple probably could not be found 
anywhere. 



KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 143 

Instances are numerous where a couple have lived together fifty 
or sixty years, and when one has died the other has followed soon 
after, sometimes in a few hours, sometimes in a day, and frequently 
in less than a week ; so closely were the ties of affection entwined 
around their hearts. "They were lovely in their lives, and in death 
they were not divided." 

Whoever marries for mone}^ may rest assured it will not guarantee 
a happy home. A young lady in Chicago, when asked by the 
officiating minister, "Will you love, honor, and obey this man as 
your husband, and be to him a true wife?" said plainly, " Yes, if he 
does what he promised me financially." Love didn't make that match. 
Love does not require any bargain. Love ignores all conditions. 
u Confidence cannot dwell where selfishness is porter at the gate." 

" Wanted— a hand to hold ray own, 
As down life's vale I glide; 
Wanted— an arm to lean upon, 
Forever by my side. 

Wanted— a firm and steady foot, 

With step secure and free, 
To take its straight and onward pace, 

Over life's path with me. 

Wanted— a form erect and high, 

A head above my own ; 
So much that I might walk beneath 

It's shadows o'er me thrown. 

Wanted -an eye within whose depth 

Mine own might look, and see 
Uprising from a guileless heart, 

O'erflown with love for me. 

Wanted— a lip, whose kindest smile 

Would speak for me alone; 
A voice whose richest melody 

Would breathe affection's tone. 

Wanted— a true, religious soul, 

To pious purposes given, 
With whom my own might pass along 

The road that leads to heaven." 

We believe the practice is all wrong, which only allows a gentle- 
man to make proposals of marriage. We see no good reason why 
a young lady shouldn't have an equal chance, and we feel confident 



144 KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 

that there would be no greater number of unfortunate marriages 
than there is now, but the reverse. We believe it to be a noble im- 
pulse of a noble soul to seek for a lovable companion. 
And what cloth express true love better than the following: 
" For whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will 
lodge; thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God; where 
thou diest will I die, and there will I be buried ; the Lord do so to 
me, and more also, if aught but death part thee and me." 

If the Arab tradition be true, a person living single is only one- 
half of a complete being, and such persons cannot enjoy more than 
one-half of what there is to enjoy in a happy union. If to live sin- 
gle is for the best good of a man, why was Eve created for a com- 
panion to Adam? To live single, voluntarily, is to question the 
edict of the Almighty, when He said, "It is not good that man 
sould be alone." 

NEWLY-MARRIED COUPLES. 

Of newly married couples the Golden Age has this to say: 

" It is the happiest, most virtuous state of society in which the 
husband and wife set out together, and with perfect sympathy of 
soul, graduate all their expenses, plans, calculations and desires with 
reference to their present means and to their future and common 
interests. 

"Nothing delights man more than to entertheneat little tenement 
of the young people, who within perhaps two or three years, without 
any resources but their own knowledge of industry, joined heart and 
hand, and engage to share together the responsibilities, duties, in- 
terests, trials and pleasures of life. The industrious wife is cheer- 
fully employing her hands in domestic duties, putting her house in 
order, or mending her husband's clothes, or preparing the dinner, 
while perhaps the little darling sits prattling on the floor or lies 
sleeping in the cradle, and everything seems preparing to welcome 
the happiest of husbands and the best of fathers when he shall come 
home from his toil to enjoy the sweets of his little paradise. 

"This is the true domestic pleasure. Health, contentment, love, 
abundance, and bright prospects are all here. But it has become a 
prevalent sentiment that a man must acquire his fortune before he, 



KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 145 

marries, that the wife must have no sympathy nor share with him 
in the pursuit of it — in which most of the pleasure truly consists — 
and the young married people must set out with as large and expen- 
sive an establishment as is becoming those who have been wedded 
for twenty years. This is very unhappy; it fills the community 
with bachelors, who are waiting to make their fortunes, endangering 
virtue, promoting vice; destroys the true economy and design of the 
domestic institution, and it promotes inefficiency among females, 
who are expecting to be taken up by fortunes and passively sustained 
without any care or concern on their part, and thus many a wife be- 
comes, as a gentleman once remarked, not a 'helpmeet,' but a 
' help-eat.' " 

"in ye olden time." 

The early settlers of Haverhill, Massachusetts, denied the right 
of any man to live alone, even if he chose to do so. Old bachelors 
couldn't do as they pleased then in Haverhill, and the court went for 
them roughly. Here is the record : " This court being informed that 
John Littlehale livest alone, in a house by himself, contrary to the 
law of the country, whereby he is subject to much sin, etc." So 
John was allowed six weeks to remove to " some orderly family," 
but John was an incorrigible old bachelor, and wouldn't give up his 
way of living in single blessedness until forty-four years after- 
wards, when he married, and then probably found out how big a fool 
he had persistently been for forty-four years at least. But they did 
worse than that to old maids — they hung some of them for witches. 

Ministers in those days were not so prostrated with their church 
services as a presiding elder of the African M. E. church in Georgia 
was recently, when at the close of a quarterly meeting, a couple 
presented themselves for marriage, when he said to them to " Go 
away and wait until I come again, I am too tired to marry you now. 11 
No doubt he felt weaker than Oliver Wendell Holmes said he should 
be, when he answered a lecture committee thus : " The state of my 
health is such that if I should deliver my lecture before your ly- 
ceum, I should be so weak when I got through, that if you should 
tender me a fifty dollar bank note, I wouldn't have strength enough 
left to refuse it." 

Perhaps we have over-drawn the picture a little and made it too 
10 



146 KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 

somber; yet no doubt after all we have said, some youog man will 
not heed our suggestions, and rush recklessly into the bands of mat- 
rimony ! " A prudent man foreseeth the evil and hideth himself, 
but the simple pass on and are punished." 

Every home is not destitute of happiness. There are hundreds, 
thousands, of happy, very happy homes, where love reigns supreme. 
It does not require a stately mansion, elegant furniture, plenty of 
servants, horses and carriages and magnificent leisure to make a 
happy home. 

THERE IS NOTHING TOO GOOD FOR MAN. 

" I never saw a garment too fine for man or maid ; there never was 
a chair too good for a cobbler or a cooper or a King to sit in ; never 
a house too fine to shelter the human head. These elements about 
us, the glorious sky, the imperial sun, are not too good for the hu- 
man race. Elegance fits man. But do we not value these tools for 
housekeeping a little more than they are worth, and sometimes 
mortgage a house for the mahogany we bring into it? I had rather 
eat my dinner off the head of a barrel, or dress after the fashion of 
John the Baptist in the wilderness, or sit on a block all my life, 
than consume all myself before I got to a home, and take so much 
pains with the outside that the inside was as hollow as an empty nut. 
Beauty is a great thing, but beauty of garment, house and furniture 
are tawdry ornaments compared with domestic love. All the ele- 
gance in the world will not make a home, and I would give more 
for a spoonful of real hearty love than for whole ship-loads of fur- 
niture, and all the gorgeousness all the upholsterers in the world 
can gather." — Dr. Holmes. 

" Nothing is sweeter than Love, nothing more courageous, noth- 
ing higher, nothing wider, nothing more pleasant, nothing fuller 
nor better in heaven and earth ; because Love is born of God, and 
cannot rest but in God, above all created things." — Thos. A'Kempis. 

" Blest be Love, to whom we owe 
All that's bright and fair below; 
Song was cold and painting dim, 
Till song and painting learned from him. 11 

— Thomas Moore. 



KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 147 

"Ah, well! for us all some sweet hope lies 
Deeply buried from human eyes ; 

And, in the hereafter, angels may 
Roll the stone from its grave away. 11 

— Whittled s "Maud Mutter" 

" By your truth she shall be true, 
Ever true, as wives of yore; 
And her yes, once said to you, 
Shall be yes forevermore." —Elizabeth Barrett Browning. 

A SONG FOR THE "HEARTH AND HOME." 

" Dark is the night, and fitful and drearily 

Rushes the wind like the waves of the sea; 
Little care I, as here I sit cheerily, 

Wife at my side and my baby on knee. 
King! king! crown me the king ! 

Home is the kingdom and Love is the king! 

"Flashes the firelight upon the dear faces, 

Dearer and dearer and onward we go, 
Forces the shadows behind us, and places 

Brightness around us with warmth in the glow. 
King ! king ! crown me the king ! 

Home is the kingdom, and Love is the king. 

" Flashes the lovelight, increasing the glory, 

Beaming from bright eyes with warmth of the soul, 
Telling of trust and content the sweet story, 

Fighting the shadows that over us roll. 
King! king! crown me the king ! 
Home is the kingdom and Love is the king. 

" Richer than miser with perishing treasure, 

Served with a service no conquest could bring; 
Happy with fortune that words cannot measure, 

Light hearted I on the hearthstone can sing. 
King! king! crown me the king! 
Home is the kingdom, and love is the king. 1 ' 

—Rev. William Ban-kin Duryea. 



ACTION ! ACTION ! ! ACTION ! ! ! 

It is action that wins. Action is everything. People dying of 
ennui never accomplish anything, but block up the way of others 
who are trying to strike out for themselves. We are sick, heart- 
sick of that class who hang around and grunt, and whine, and do 
nothing for themselves, or anybody else. 

The spirit that nerves one up to do his best, in whatever place or 
avocation he is engaged, is worthy of the highest praise. To excel, 
to do a little better to day than yesterday, to do a little better than 
a companion is doing, is commendable. Hitting the mark counts 
one ahead. The leap that carries you an inch beyond your com- 
petitor, is a mark in your favor. Ambition to do good, to develop 
one's talents to their utmost capacity, is praiseworthy. Ambition, 
controlled by right motives, never harms any one. Linked to pat- 
riotism it makes heroes and martyrs. What a noble example in 
Admiral Farragut at the battle of Mobile Bay, when he ascended 
the rigging, and was firmly lashed to the mast, there to remain until 
the battle was lost or won. What courage it must have inspired in 
his men on deck to see their commander above them exposed to the 
sharp-shooters of the enemy, with no possible chance to shield him- 
self, or escape. He was there to direct the battle and face the deadly 
fire of the enemy. If his vessel went down, he went down with it. 

" A sacred burden is the life ye bear, 
Look on it, lift it, bear it solemnly, 
Stand up and walk beneath it steadfastly. 
Fail not for sorrow, falter not for sin, 
But onward, upward, till the goal ye win." 

— Frances Anne Kemble. 

TALENT AND AMBITION. 

No amount of practice will develop talent where there is no am- 
bition to excel. Where every luxury that money will buy is en- 
joyed, even to the fullest capacity; where the daily life is but a 
round of indulgences that weaken the constitution, and deaden the 



KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 149 

intellectual faculties, there is not the least inclination to study a 
branch that requires labor to achieve success. 

Political ambition is not worthy of consideration for a moment. 
It is detrimental to the best interests of any young man. If he 
allows himself to be drawn into the political arena, it will be one 
of the worst moves he ever made. It will be at the sacrifice of all 
his principles of honor and integrity. It is next to an impossibility 
for the best and the most conscientious man living to make politics 
his chief ambition and study, without his reputation becoming tar- 
nished. Office-seeking is fraught with many perils. There are too 
few offices, and too many who want to fill them ; all cannot be sat- 
isfied. The sad examples of those who have tried, only to fail in 
the end, and have gone down to their graves before their time, 
wrecks of their former greatness, ought to be sufficient warning 
to all. 

John C. Calhoun came the nearest of any man living or dead, of 
reaching the highest pinnacle of his ambition, and only to miss it 
by a step. When Calhoun graduated from Yale College, he said: 
" Now for the Presidency!" And he concentrated his entire ener- 
gies to accomplish his purpose, to gain the coveted place. He came 
as near the door as any man could, and not pass over its threshold, 
being elected Vice President on the ticket with Andrew Jackson. 
Webster, Clay, Everett, Seward, Chase, Douglass and Greeley, all 
wanted to be President. They all failed. All spent their last -days 
in sorrow over disappointed ambition. They had worked and toiled 
hard for years to accomplish a purpose only to fail, and to die with 
an ambition unsatisfied. 

POLITICAL HONORS UNSATISFYING. 

Men who are ambitious for political preferment, are seldom sat. 
isfied with the honors secured. If the highest places are reached, 
the fruits are unsatisfying and delusive ; the honors of doubtful sub- 
stantiality. Even the President of the United States at the end of 
four years, or eight years at the farthest, must relinquish the power 
and honor placed in his hands, and step down and become one of 
the common people, perhaps to be neglected and forgotten. 

"One self-approving hour whole years outweighs 
01 stupid starers and of loud huzzas. '' , - Pope. 



EXAMPLES OF HEROISM. 

NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 

The Vendoine Column of Paris was erected by the French gov- 
ernment in honor of Napoleon Bonaparte. Twelve hundred can- 
non, captured from the Austrians, were melted down to form a 
spiral relief which wreathed the column from top to bottom, por- 
traying the scenes, and giving the names, of the great battles won 
by the Emperor. Upon its top was placed a statue of Napoleon in 
Roman costume. Many times since its first erection, has the statue 
been thrown down, and as often replaced, until in 1875 the column 
was blown into fragments by the French people, who had learned 
to look upon it with derision. Time had wrought such changes in 
the hearts of the French that they could no longer look with com- 
placency upon a monument erected to commemorate the name and 
fame of a despot, whose boundless ambition trampled upon human 
rights without mercy, and lowered in the dust the high and the low 
of whatever creed or nationality, that stood in the way of his indi- 
vidual advancement. The heartlessness of this man seems incred- 
ible. That he should cruelly drive from him his beautiful and 
accomplished wife, Josephine, as lovely a woman as ever graced the 
palace halls of the Tuilleries, is something beyond our comprehen- 
sion. No language seems adequate to express condemnation for 
such an act. Yet his life was but a repetition of similar deeds of 
cruelty. Who but a Napoleon could have condemned to death a 
soldier who finished and sealed a letter to his wife after the time at 
night when lights were ordered to be extinguished, and who, when 
detected was compelled to break the seal, and to insert these words 
as a postscript : " I die to-morrow morning at sunrise, for disobe- 
dience of orders." Such men, we are thankful, are rare in these 
daj's; yet Napoleon's inordinate ambition, which impelled him to 
exercise such inhumanity, has its counterpart in every age; and 
even in our own times men equally ambitious, and equally ready to 
level all before them to subserve their own selfish purposes, may be 
found in every community. 



KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 151 

We insert the following stanzas from Byron's poem on "Napo- 
leon," which most graphically portrays the life and character of 
the world's greatest tyrant, controlled by an unholy ambition : 

" *T is done, — but yesterday a king! 

And armed with kings to strive,— 
And now thou art a nameless thing: 

So abject — yet alive! 
Is this the man of thousand thrones, 
Who strewed our earth with hostile bones, 

And can he thus survive ? 
Since he, miscalled the Morning Star, 
Nor man nor fiend hath fallen so far. 



" And Earth hath spilled her blood for him. 

Who thus can hoard his own ! 
And monarchs bowed the trembling limb, 

And thanked him for a throne ! 
Fair Freedom ! may we hold thee dear, 
When thus thy mightiest foes their fear 

In humblest guise have shown. 
O, ne'er may tyrant leave behind 
A brighter name to lure mankind! 

" Thine evil deeds are writ in gore, 

Nor written thus in vain ; 
Thy triumphs tell of fame no more, 

Or deepen every stain. 
If thou hadst died as honor dies, 
Some new Napoleon might arise, 

To shame the world again; 
But who would soar the solar height, 
To set in such a starless night? 

" Weighed in the balance, hero dust 

Is vile as vulgar clay; 
Thy scales, Mortality! are just 

To all that pass away: 
But yet methought the living great 
Some higher spark should animate, 

To dazzle and dismay; 
Nor deemed contempt could thus make mirth 
Of these, the conquerors of the earth. 



152 KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 

FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE. 

When the Crimean war was in progress, there was wafted west- 
ward across the continent to England, a wail of woe and of distress, 
such as was never before heard by any civilized people. It came 
from her sick and wounded soldiers, as they lay uncared for on the 
battle-field. There were no hospitals, no hospital supplies, no 
nurses, and the poor soldiers were dying from sheer and cruel neg 
lect. England was alarmed as the ranks of her army were melting 
away by the fearful mortality among her troops. The sad wail, the 
moans of the sick and dying, was heard by a highly accomplished 
young lady at her home of luxury and refinement, surrounded with 
every comfort wealth could command, or loving friends could 
devise. Instantly she responded to the call of the suffering, and 
dying soldiers on the field of battle. Enlisting two hundred assist- 
ants, she bade her happy home and loving friends adieu, and with 
the utmost alacrity hurried to the field of carnage and death, where 
shot and shell had done its cruel work. At the sight of the awful 
scenes in that "valley of death," she faltered not. The ghastly 
dead, the mangled and shattered wrecks of the human form — made 
so by the death-dealing missiles of the enemy, had no terrors for 
her, when duty and humanity called. The terrible suffering of the 
sick and wounded, the agonizing cries of those w T ho had passed 
beyond the reach of human aid, brought to her view scenes never 
to be forgotten. The sickening stench of decomposing bodies, only 
added to the horrors of the situation. It was enough to appal the 
stoutest heart, and to destroy nerves of iron. She went among the 
dead to find the living; kneeling down amid corpses, to minister to 
some poor soldier who had fallen beside them, with all the tender- 
ness or a mother's love, or a sister's devotion. The rough dragoon, 
or the young drummer-boy, some mother's darling, received alike 
her utmost care and attention. 

Hundreds, thousands, lived to bless the name of Florence Night- 
ingale. No monument is needed to immortalize her name. Her 
memory will be held in grateful remembrance long after the name 
of Napoleon shall have been forgotten. Her labors were not passed 
by unrewarded. A gift of fifty thousand pounds was made to her 
as a slight testimonial of her invaluable services. But her last 
noble act was the crowning glory of a beautiful life : she donated 



KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 153 

the entire sum given her to the founding of an institution for the 
education and training of nurses. She still lives, an invalid. She 
sacrificed every comfort, a delightful home and its enjoyments, her 
health and all the pleasures of life, that others might live, rescued 
from the very jaws of death on the battle fields of Inkermann and 
Balaklava. Look at her life-work, and compare it with Napoleon's. 
Which of the two was the nobler ? 



EVERY -DAY HEROES. 

A steamer on Lake Michigan, crowded with passengers, caught 
fire and while every effort was being made to extinguish the flames, 
the captain ordered the pilot to head for land, and to " hold fast to 
the helm" The fire was soon past all control. The passengers were 
terrified as the fire was consuming all before it, and driving them 
into closer quarters. The only hope for them was in the pilot being 
able to remain at his post, and the engines to continue to work until 
land was reached. Flame and smoke enveloped the pilot house, 
hiding the pilot from view. Every few moments the captain would 
call out to the pilot, " John, are you there ?" Every time came back 
the response, " Aye, aye, sir." The wildest excitement pervaded the 
passengers. The intense heat was narrowing down their chances of 
reaching land, and thereby escaping a terrible death by fire or 
water. Again the captain called to the pilot to know if he was 
there, and u aye, aye, sir," was heard above the roar of the flames. 
The captain asks, "can you hold on five minutes longer?" The 
answer came back, " By the help of God, I will try, sir." As the 
last passenger took the gang plank and was safely on shore, the 
heroic spirit of John Maynard went heavenward. 

A watchman on a drawbridge knew that the express train was 
coming around the curve, just as his little boy had fallen from his 
side into the boiling current below. To save his child, or the train 
and its living freight, were the questions presented to him for imme- 
diate decision. The boy was struggling in the water, and calling 
to his father for help ; a moment more and the on-coming train will 
be thrown into the river, if the bridge is not closed. The watch- 
man swings the bolts that move the draw, the train with its hun- 
dreds of passengers rushes on just as it closes, and is saved. The 



154 KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 

father looks for his boy, but he is gone, a sacrifice to duty. What 
more sublime instance of true heroism than this, can be found ? 

In a village upon one side of the Alps lived a little crippled boy, 
by the name of Fritz. One day the villagers went out from their 
homes for a picnic. Fritz was too lame to go, and therefore he 
alone of all the villagers remained at home. When the picnicers 
were in the height of their enjoyment, it was discovered that a 
" signal fire" had been lighted above their village, which was the 
usual signal that an enemy was approaching. The villagers has- 
tened back to the village just in time to save their homes from des- 
poliation. The mystery to them was, who could have "fired the 
pile." Fritz was missing from his home. The people searched 
everywhere for him, and at last he was discovered near the burning 
pile, dead; killed by the invading horde, in revenge for having 
discovered their approach, and given the alarm. On his hands and 
knees he had crawled up the mountain side and lighted the signal 
fire. Was not he a greater hero than Napoleon Bonaparte ? 



WHAT SHALL I LIVE FOR? 

Many of our readers may ask, "What shall I live for?" We 
cannot answer this, the most important of all questions, better than 
by inserting the following lines : 

"WHAT I LIVE FOR. 

"I live for those who love me, 

For those I know are true, 
For the heaven that smiles above me 

And awaits my spirit too; 
For all human ties that bind me, 
For the task my God assigned me, 
For the bright hopes left behind me, 

And the good that I can do. 



KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 155 

" I live to learn their story, 

Who've suffered for my sake, 
To emulate their glory, 

And follow in their wake: 
Bards, martyrs, patriots, sages, 
The noble of all ages, 
Whose deeds crown history's pages, 

And times great volume make. 

"I live to hail that season 

By gifted minds foretold, 
When men shall live by reason, 

And not alone for gold ; 
When man to man united, 
And every wrong thing righted, 
The whole world shall be lighted 

As Eden was of old. 

I live to hold communion 

With all that is divine, 
To feel that there is union 

Twixt Nature's heart and mine, 
To profit by affliction, 
Reap truth from fields of fiction, 
Grow wiser from conviction — 

Fulfilling God's design. 

" I live for those that love me, 
For those that know me true, 
For the heaven that smiles above me, 

And waits my spirit, too ; 
For the wrongs that need resistance 
• For the cause that needs assistance, 
For the future in the distance, 
And the good that I can do." 

Dr. Murray, u Kerwan," writes of visiting an old man of ninety 
years who said to him, " Do all the good you can, to all the people 
you can, in all the ways you can, and as long as you can." 



THE DELUSIONS OF THE AGE. 



THE "MIRAGE." 

We were once traveling in a country where this fantastic delusion 
plaj^ed around us occasionally, to our supreme delight. Indifferent 
and obscure objects would appear along the horizon, wonderfully 
transformed. Scrubby brush a foot or two high loomed up like a 
forest of tall timber. Grass of less than six inches would be elon- 
gated to tall reeds, and would seem to be running a swift race. Soil 
that was red would present all the appearance of a raging, naming 
fire. Men and animals would pass through wonderful transforma- 
tions, assuming many curious and comical shapes. 

The water illusion to the poor, weary, thirsty, perishing traveler, 
is terrible — awful to think of — the climax of human suffering. For 
days he has been anxiously seeking for water, and all at once before 
his eager eyes appears beautiful lakelets, studded with islands, with 
fine shade trees gracing the shores. Excitedly he exclaims, " Water ! 
Water ! it is found at last." The cherished boon is just before him ; 
ten minutes walk and his raging thirst will be quenched. He 
bounds forward with new vigor, but soon discovers that the lake 
that appeared so near remains just fts far away. He stops and looks 
again and again, and says: "Surely there is water; it is a flowing 
river." He sees the waves rise and fall as gentle zephyrs play over 
them, sparkling in the sunlight. He almost thinks he hears the 
rippling waves as they lave the nearer shore. On he goes with 
increasing speed, if it were possible, that the sooner his burning, 
maddening thirst may be assuaged. He goes on ; so does the phan- 
tom. In the burning heat of midday he falters, gasps for breath ; 
his tongue is parched, swollen, and ceases to articulate. Reason 
trembles in the balance; his eyes are fixed, and with fingers point- 
ing to the illusion, to him so real, he lies down to die. On the 
margin of that other river, to him unseen, his weary, weary feet 
halted. 



RENTS NEW COMMENTARY. 157 

THIRST. 

No word in our language, perhaps, carries with it greater weight 
than the word thirst. It is one of the words the meaning of which 
changes not. It is used to express all human wants, whether of 
body, mind or soul — intensified in the superlative degree. 

There is no physical suffering more terrible to endure, or a death 
more awful to die than that of the burning thirst for water. Sailors 
shipwrecked upon the open sea know its horrors. Vambrey, in his 
travels in Central Asia, describes most graphically the scenes he 
witnessed there. He says: "Two of our companions having ex- 
hausted all their water, fell so sick that we were forced to bind 
them at full length upon the camels, as they were perfectly inca- 
pable of riding or sitting. We covered them, and as long as they 
were able to articulate, they kept exclaiming: 'Water! Water!' 
the only words that escaped their lips. Alas! even their best 
friends denied them the life dispensing draught. On the fourth 
day one of them was freed by death from the dreadful torments of 
thirst. It was a horrible sight to see the father hide his store of 
water from the son, and brother from brother; each drop is life; 
and when men feel the torture of thirst there is not, as in the dan- 
gers of life, any spirit of self-sacrifice, or any feeling of generosity." 

The word thirst is very frequently used figuratively when speak- 
ing of an intense desire, or craving for any special object. Thus 
we say, "He thirsts for revenge;" "thirsts after happiness;" "he 
seeks his keeper's flesh and thirsts his blood." One of the ineffable 
joys of heaven is portrayed, by the statement that, "They shall 
never hunger nor thirst." That is to say, that every longing shall 
be satisfied. Earth affords no such boon. 

The world is full of thirsty people — thirsting for something they 
do not possess, a craving for something beyond their grasp. The 
mirage holds out the most tantalizing appearances to the poor trav- 
eler dying of thirst. It allures him along only to mock him at last 
in the death throes. Some persons are permitted to reach the foun- 
tain they sought to reach, to drink deep thereof, to find at last it 
is a bitter fountain. No man who has had a burning thirst for 
gold, or for wealth, and who has exceeded his first mark — was ever 
satisfied with it. The same burning thirst, intensified, calls for 



158 KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 

more continually, and will not be satisfied. The pleasures of life 
afford no fountain at which its votaries can satiate their thirst. 
The man of ambition, "fired up" to "white heat," finds no cool 
refreshing stream where he may quench the "fire within." The 
political aspirants, thirsting for office, even if they obtain the office 
sought, are unable to slake their thirst in the enjoyment of its honors. 
When they reach the first round of their aspirations they discover a 
round higher, and so they thirst for that one, and are never satisfied. 

THIRSTING FOR FAME. 

Dr. X., after having accumulated a princely fortune, thirsted for 
the honors of the world. He sought to have his name immortalized 
by having towns and cities bear his name. He gave a large sum of 
money to a village corporation to induce its citizens to drop the 
original name, and to take his name instead. He thirsted for polit- 
ical honors. He aspired to have " Hon." in front, or "M. C." at the 
end of his name. He labored assiduously and spent his money 
lavishly to get the nomination for a representative to Congress, but, 
was always defeated. It was a great and sore disappointment to Dr. 
X. It incapacitated him for any business. * His friends carried him 
to a private medical institution for treatment. The shock to his 
system, however, had been too great to yield to remedies. He lin- 
gered a few months and died — died of an unquenchable thirst; for 
honors that money could not purchase. He sought to drink from 
a fountain that seemed to him so near and inviting— just a little 
way from him. The delusive mirage danced before him most be- 
witchingly, alluring him on, and inspiring him with the most san- 
guine anticipations and expectations to soon reach that fountain, 
and there to slake his burning thirst. No, never ! Honors of the 
world never satisfy. 

Does wealth satisfy? Will it quench all thirst, appease all 
cravings of the body, of mind, and of soul ! No. It never has ; 
it never will. Dr. X. had wealth in abundance. He left an 
estate of over ten millions of dollars. With his vast possessions, he 
was beyond all earthly necessity — for with his money he could 
supply every physical need. There was no luxury he could not 
purchase that could in any way conduce to his best and fullest 
enjoyment of life. 



KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 159 

THIRSTING FOR HONORS. 

"What's fame? 
A fancied life in other's breath. 
A thing beyond us, e'en before our death.'' 1 — Pope. 

Horace Greeley was born in a humble home, in poverty. At 
sixteen years of age he started out for himself, penniless. For years 
his success was anything but encouraging. With indomitable 
energy he labored on until he became the editor-in-chief of the 
New York Tribune, one of the best papers in the world. The posi- 
tion did not satisfy Jiim very long. He longed for something 
beyond — to drink at another fountain. He set his affections upon 
the highest office in the land — the Presidency of the United States. 
The mirage played most charmingly before him, and the more he 
speculated upon the delusion, the greater assurance he had of 
its being what it seemed, and to be so near to him, that there was 
no question as to his ability to drink to his full, of public favor 
The thirst increased as time drew near when the verdict of the 
people was to decide who was to be the winning man. It was a 
short aud spirited race. Mr. Greeley concentrated his entire ener- 
gies, soul and body, to win the race. He failed. He was a disap- 
pointed man. The presidential mirage proved a terrible delusion 
to him. He fell into a stupor soon after the result was known, from 
which he never rallied, and his death followed in a very few days. 

" What shall I do lest life in silence pass?" 
And if it do, 
And never prompt the bray of noisy brass, 

What need'st thou rue? 
Remember aye the ocean's deeps are mute; 

The shallows roar ; 

Worth is the ocean,— Fame is the bruit 

Along the shore. 

"What shall I do to be forever known?" 

Thy duty ever; 
"This did full many who yet sleep unknown,"— 
Oh! never, never! 
Think'st thou perchance that they remain unknown 

Whom thou know'st not? 
By angel trumps in heaven their praise is blown, 
Divine their lot. 



160 KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 

"What shall I do to gain eternal life?" 

Discharge aright 
The simple clues with which each day is rife ? 

Yea, with thy might. 
Ere perfect scheme of action thou devise, 

Will life be fled, 
While he who ever acts as conscience cries 

Shall live, though dead. — Schiller. 

"There is no death! What seems so is transition, 
This life of mortal breath 
Is but the suburb of the life elysian, 
Whose portals we call death. " — Longfellow. 

Life, as we call it, is nothing but the edge of the boundless ocean 
of existence. — 0. W. Holmes. 



Every young man of ordinary good sense is anxious to learn in 
advance what he can, of his future, his fortune, and the happiness 
or sorrow, success or failure that awaits him before the problem of 
life shall have been fully solved. It is perfectly right and proper 
that he should be anxious to rightly comprehend the ever-increas- 
ing responsibilities as the years come and go ; responsibilities that 
he cannot escape or delegate to any human being. 

There is a sure road to success. Go bravely forward and fear- 
lessly meet the responsibilities of life as they shall arise, with the 
full determination to yield to none. Bear your own burdens cheer- 
fully and with courage. Surmount all obstacles that are hindrances, 
though they may be simply blessings in disguise. Aim for some- 
thing higher at each advancing step, thereby developing increasing 
power to achieve victory. Thus every step lifts you one degree 
higher — higher and nearer to the goal. 

" So live, that when thy summons comes to join 
The innumerable caravan that moves 
To the pale realms of shade, where each shall take 
His chamber in the silent halls of death, 
Thou go not, like the quarry-slave at night, 
Scourged to his dungeon, but, sustained and soothed 
By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave 
Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch 
About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams. " — Bryant. 



PART II. 



PRACTICAL BUSINESS PRECEPTS. 



INTEGRITY OF CHARACTER. 

The young men of this country have great reason to feel proud 
of their birth-right. This is the only land where every avenue for 
business, the learned professions, or public offices of honor and trust 
are open alike to all, rich or poor, high or low. We have here no 
caste, no entailed heirships, no aristocracy to " lord it over the com- 
mon people." Every young man is absolutely free to select his 
own calling and compete for any place or position in the gift of the 
people, even to the highest office, the presidency of the United 
States. It is his inalienable right under the laws of the land, to 
choose any pathway that he may deem the most congenial to his 
happiness. No serfdom can exist where the banner of universal 
freedom floats to the free winds of heaven. 

There are certain fundamental principles which lie at the bottom 
of all successful achievements in any legitimate undertaking. The 
very first thing for a young man to do, is to decide for himself 
what shall be his calling ; whether it shall be one of the varied 
industries of the country ; whether he shall aim to be a merchant 
prince or a scholar, or a man of science. He alone must decide this 
question. If it is merchandizing, one of the requisites is capital. 
Yet there is something better than a cash capital to commence busi- 
ness with, — even as long as one continues in active life, there is 
something better, and what every one must have, to entitle him 
to be classed " A 1," and that is integrity of character. It is 
better than a gift of ten thousand dollars to any young man, if 
destitute of that important requisite. Hundreds of young men have 
11 



162 KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 

commenced business and made it successful who had not a dollar i 
in cash to invest at the start. They are able to secure capital by 
their integrity of character, which will always give them credit, 
while a man of wealth devoid of it, cannot secure equal favors. A 
dishonest man, no matter how large his bank account may be, is 
always looked upon with suspicion. He possesses double power. 
He can violate all rules of true business etiquette, and with his 
wealth enforce his dishonest schemes. And it has come to this with 
many wholesale dealers, when selecting their customers they will 
say : " We do not care a rig as to what Mr. A. is worth ; all we care 
to know is, is he honest." One dealer will have a car load of produce 
shipped to him with no other instructions but to " sell and remit 
proceeds less charges," while another dealer cannot get a consign- 
ment of merchandise to sell on commission on any terms. 

We knew a fruit-dealer, who on the reputation of his father, 
would order a large quantity of fruit, and as soon as it arrived at 
the depot, would telegraph to the consignor, " Your fruit is in bad 
order; will not receive it. It is at the depot subject to your order." 
The shipper, unaware of the character of the dealer, telegraphs 
back, "Take fruit; do the best you can; remit proceeds less ex- 
penses." There was never anything to remit; the transaction was 
a clean steal. He did not continue long in the fruit business. 

A farmer in Indiana had a large crop of corn on hand, and he 
concluded to ship it to a commission merchant at Cincinnati, whose 
flaming advertisement he had read in the papers headed, "Produce 
received on consignment." The corn was shipped by canal. The 
commission merchant acknowledged the receipt of it, and reported 
market price. The farmer concluded to have it held for a better 
price. After a few months he ordered the commission man, " to 
sell the corn and remit proceeds." The corn was sold and a state- 
ment was made out and sent to the farmer, which charged such 
large sums for boatage, drayage, storage, shrinkage, ratage, insu- 
rance and commission, that the amount received for the corn when 
applied to the payment of these charges, was pretty well used up, 
and the farmer got very little for his corn. He answered the com- 
mission man thus: "You lying scoundrel; put in stealage and take 
it all." Men run great risks and try various expedients to realize 
sudden wealth or to make a big strike. All the tricks of trade, in 



KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 163 

the end, turn out unfavorable to those who attempt them. Those 
who practice them gain unenviable reputations, which will stick 
to them as long as they live, and follow them wherever they go. 
The history of the men who were engaged in the " Tammany steal" 
of New York city, illustrates the fact that ill-gotten gains do not 
add to the happiness .of those who possess them. 

A young man engaged in the wholesale trade, and procured a 
large insurance on his stock, amounting to two or three times its 
value. A fire occurred in his store soon after. His stock was not 
consumed, but nearly ruined by water. The insurance adjusters 
enquired into the matter, and the result of their investigation was, 
they offered the young man one dollar each for the policies he held, 
if he would surrender them to the companies that issued them. He 
accepted the proposition. He received five dollars for a $16,000 
loss. His smartness developed itself unfortunately for him. Some 
men will sell themselves for a dollar. The penalties from cheating 
in weight or measure, or misrepresenting the quality of goods to 
secure a sale, always recoils on the man'who practices such impo- 
sitions. You must remember, every man has his friends, and there 
is but one safe way to do business, to treat everybody as you would 
a friend, and you will never lack for patronage. 

HON. JOHN FRIEDLEY'S MOTTO. 

" Self-dependence, self-reliance." 

" It is a mistaken notion," he writes, " that capital alone is neces- 
sary to success in business. If a man has head and hands suited to 
his business, it will soon procure him capital. My observations 
through life satisfy me that at least nine-tenths of the most success- 
ful in business, start in life without any reliance except upon their 
own hardened hands — hoe their own row from the jump." 

AMOS LAWRENCE'S WAY OF DEALING WITH CUSTOMERS. 

A country trader bought a few yards of cloth at ten dollars a 
yard. On measuring the piece at home it ran short a quarter of 
a yard. The trader was almost afraid to speak of so small a matter 
to so courtly a merchant. On his next visit to Boston, he plucked 
up courage enough to say : " Mr. Lawrence, when I was here a few 



164 KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 

months ago, I bought a few yards of fine broad cloth." " Yes, at ten 
dollars a yard." " According to my measure, it fell short a quarter." 
" Fell short a quarter ? That will never do ; it should have overrun 
a quarter." Turning to the book-keeper he sad: " Credit this gen- 
tleman with a half a yard of our best broad cloth." That customer 
was nailed for life. — "Burleigh." 

HUGH MILLER. 

Hugh Miller's worthy uncle used to advise him, "In all your 
dealings give your neighbor the cast of the bank — " good measure, 
heaped up, and running over" — and yoU'will not lose by it in the 
end." 

Hugh Miller speaks of a mason with w 7 hom he served his appren- 
ticeship as one who "put his conscience into every stone that he laid.''' 

MAXIMS OF SUCCESSFUL MEN. 

"Be frank; say w r hat you mean; do what you say; so shall your 
friends know and take it for granted that you mean to do what is 
just and right, 

" Never forget a favor, for ingratitude is the basest trait of man's 
heart. Always honor your country, and remember that our country 
is the very best poor man's country in the world." — John Gregg. 

A Boston merchant had these two maxims for his guide : 

" Do you what you undertake thoroughly." 

u Be faithful in all accepted trusts." 

He says of them, " I am satisfied they have served me well three 
score years." And so they did, for he was one of the solid men ot 
Boston — a millionare. 

" As a first and leading principle, let every transaction be of that 
pure and honest character that you w r ould not be ashamed to have 
appear before the wiiole world as clearly as to yourself. It is of 
the highest consequence that you should not only cultivate correct 
principles, but that you should place your standard high as to 
require great vigilance in living up to it." — Amos Lawrence. 

"The most trifling actions that affect a man's credit are to be 
regarded. The sound of your hammer at five in the morning, or 
nine at night, heard by a creditor makes him easy six months 



KENT >S NE W COMMENT AR Y. 1 05 

longer; but if he sees you at the billiard-table, or hears your voice 
at a tavern, when you should be at work, he sends for his money 
the next day, demands it before he can receive it in a lump.'' — 
Franklin. 

JOHN MC DONOGH'S RULES. 

Upon the tomb of John McDonogh, the millionare of New Or- 
leans, are engraved thirteen maxims which he adopted for his guid- 
ance through life, and no doubt had much to do in making it a very 
successful one : 

" 1. Remember always that labor is one of the conditions of our 
existence. 2. Time is gold ; throw not one minute away, but place 
each one to account. 3. Do unto all men as you would be done by. 
4. Never put off till to-morrow what you can do to-day. 5. Never 
bid another to do what you can do yourself. 6. Never covet what 
is not your own. 7. Never think any matter so trifling as not to 
desire notice. 8. Never give out that which does not first come in. 
9. Never spend but to produce. 10. Let the greatest order regu- 
late the transactions of your life. 11. Study in your course of life 
to do the greatest amount of good. 12. Deprive yourself of noth- 
ing necessary to your comfort, but live in an honorable simplicity 
and frugality. 13. Labor, then, to the last moment of your exis- 
tence." 

BOOK-KEEPING. 

No considerable amount of business can be carried on systemat- 
ically, or successfully without a careful and accurate account being 
kept of every transaction. The manufacturer figures his profit on 
a yard of muslin at a quarter of a cent per yard. The banker and 
broker do certain kinds ot brokerage business for an eighth and 
even for a sixteenth of one per per cent, commission. It is not only 
the cents that have to be looked after, but the fractions of a cent, 
and its through the careful watching and accounting for these frac- 
tions, that the great enterprises of the country are made successful. 
Every drop of oil used upon the rolling stock of a railroad, or a 
loom in a cotton factoiy, is accounted for in the account of running 
expenses. Every thread of waste made in a cotton factory is weighed. 
It is utterly impossible for a large establishment of any kind to do 



166 KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 

business, unless every item of the business is " booked." And what- 
ever is advantageous for a corporation to do, is also of equal advan- 
tage to individuals, so far as the keeping of book accounts is 
concerned. No matter how small a business a man may do, even 
if he is only a clerk or a day laborer, he should keep account of all 
his transactions with his employer. Unless he does so, he is not 
fitted to do business for himself, and needs a guardian to look after 
his interests. Allowing every man to be honest, there is no man 
perfect, and mistakes are often made, and the only way to avoid 
multiplying them, is to keep a complete record of every item of 
business done. 

The improved methods of book-keeping are the best for adoption. 
An endless amount of expensive litigation often results from hav- 
ing no system of recording business transactions daily as they occur. 
The man who has no system, is at the mercy of every dishonest 
man he may have dealings with. We heard of a country trader 
who had a novel way of keeping his accounts, and it was thus : 
When a customer purchased anything on credit, the merchant 
would write the customer's name on a slip of paper, and the amount 
of the purchase, and throw the slip into a barrel kept for the pur- 
pose, under the counter. When a customer came in to " settle up," 
he would empty his barrel upon the floor, and examine all the slips 
to find those against the name of the particular customer, and by 
these he settled his account. In the State of New York, a farmer 
kept his accounts on his cellar door, and he was obliged to carry 
the door into court, in a law-suit he was engaged in, to prove the 
original entry. Doors are not very convenient " records" to carry 
around to prove an original* entry. It requires something besides 
simply knowledge of the multiplication table to know how to keep 
a set of books in a way that will stand the test, when an account 
has to be verified by them. 

THE VALUE OF A COMMERCIAL EDUCATION. 

The best advice we have to offer is, for every young man who 
possibly can, to avail himself of a scholarship in some first class 
commercial college. No matter what it costs, it will be the best 
investment any young man can make, if he ever expects to super- 
intend his own personal affairs. Hundreds of men have failed 



KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 167 

simply because they did not understand how to keep their accounts 
correctly. It is a very easy thing to lose a hundred, or a thousand 
dollars, even in one's business, if he has much to do, if he is igno- 
rant of a correct method. It matters not what business a young 
man may engage in, there will come a time when such knowledge 
will be of the greatest value to him. No one need expect to fill 
any place of public trust, who is destitute of the knowledge of book- 
keeping. So, if he pays a hundred or two hundred dollars for a 
commercial education, he is absolutely sure of getting it back, and 
ten times over, should he live to be fifty years old. Then in case 
of failure of health, or the loss of a leg, he has talent he can al- 
ways make available. 

We wish to add this statement, that young men who have grad- 
uated from the best colleges in the land, require after that, a com- 
mercial education to do business, just as much as a farmer boy. It 
is a fact, that ministers as a rule are the very poorest class of men 
in the country to do business for themselves or any one else. If the 
minister is well fitted for the "ministerial office," he will most 
surely fail should he leave his calling for a business where finan- 
cial ability is required. A commercial education deals with abso- 
lute facts, it is all facts. No abstract theories or suppositions, or ; 
speculations, current to-day and obsolete to-morrow. Figures are 
stubborn facts that are unchangable. 

A few years ago some parties were prospecting for oil in Canada. 
They called upon an old farmer, and proposed to him to bore for 
oil on his farm, offering to give him one-eighth of all the oil ob- 
tained as royalty. The old farmer studied over the proposition for 
sometime, and finally declined their offer. He however, made them 
a proposition which they were very willing to accept, in preference 
to their own, which was, that " one-sixteenth" instead of one-eighth 
should be the royalty granted. This is only a sample of the igno- 
rance of thousands of farmers, and shows the absolute necessity of 
farmer boys having a commercial education. 

ADVERTISE YOUR BUSINESS. 

The good old days of our great-grand-fathers, with their time- 
honored customs have passed away. The modes of travel are all 
changed. The saddle and stage-coach have given way to the steam 



168 KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 

wagon. Lightning carries the news around the world every day. 
Telephones bring together friends, hundreds of miles apart, to chat 
around their own firesides, seated in their easy chairs, although 
vision is dim to look out into the darkness and see their familiar 
faces, yet we listen to their sweet and welcome voices, and know 
they cannot be far away, when we can hold sweet conversation with 
them by the hour. This remarkable discovery is of great impor- 
tance as well as convenience. Young people can do their courting 
with much less inconvenience. Sickness or storm, heat or cold will 
not interrupt an evening chat. If merchants could have telephones 
to every house to announce the first arrival of new goods, all the 
latest styles daily, it would facilitate keeping their customers al- 
ways posted. This, at present is an impossibility. The newspaper 
of to-day is the least expensive, and the surest medium to reach the 
intelligent masses. Hardly a family that does not take one or more 
papers. Whatever they see in their paper they read and believe. 
Advertisements are read with greater interest than the President's 
message, or the Bible by the masses of readers. Where there 
are children they always keep posted with all the advertisers, and 
what they advertise. If an article is wanted they know just who 
has it. In fact, they do not know any other dealer. His name is 
not in u our paper," and with them he might just as well be in 
Joppa or dead. Advertising in papers that are given away is sim- 
ply throwing money away. 

It is a fast age, everybody is in a hurry. The merchant that is up 
to the times is anxious to turn his goods over as often as possible. 
" Quick returns and small profits," is his motto. The customer has 
no time to spend hunting up the man who does not advertise; in 
fact he does not want to know him. The man that advertises has 
everything that is new. Customers like to see new goods, even if 
they are not prepared to buy. The merchant who does not adver- 
tise loses the best class of customers, because his goods are all old 
style. If he buys fresh goods, and up to style, his customers will 
not find it out until the goods are " too common," consequently he 
is ever three to six months behind. When the first flurry is over, 
prices have to be cut down to make sales. The man who don't ad- 
vertise, never has as many customers to look at his goods, and can- 
not sell as cheap as the man who advertises People from a dis- 



KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 169 

tance always go straight to the store of the man whose name they 
have seen u in the papers." They know he has the goods. 

In the good old days of onr ancestors, every housewife made all 
the cloth for the entire family. " Store goods" did not have the 
place that they do now. It required only a very few men then to do 
the business. Only in large cities would there be usually more 
than one man in any one branch of trade. Eveiybody would know 
him. It would make no difference about his advertising. In fact, 
but few papers were published. A merchant cannot do business 
now as they did fifty years ago. He must keep up with the times. 
If his neighbor advertises he must. The best advertised man leads 
the trade. Men do not fail by too much advertising, if judiciously 
made. If he has a small stock, and there are not customers enough, 
if they gave him all their patronage, it would not pay him to ad- 
vertise to any great extent. He cannot make customers if the people 
are not within his reach. A good location in a live community 
where there is wealth, is the place to make money. 

" People do not read advertisements." A gentleman in Philadel- 
phia advertised for a lost kitten. His door bell rang early next 
morning; a half dozen boys were there, each had the " lost kitten." 
He looked up street and more boys were coming with kittens, and 
down street and boys were hurrying along, each had a cat or kitten ; 
in fact the streets seemed to be alive, black with boys bringing 
home the lost kitten utterly regardless of the size, age and color 
described in the advertisement. Some of them had " puppies." It 
took about three days to stop the "Mister here is your lost kitten;" 
"Mister, is this your dog?" 

People don't read the papers? Well, when a hungry man buys a 
ticket to a church dinner and don't eat his money's worth, water will 
run up hill. If there is anything on the table he don't taste of, it 
will be because he cannot see it, or the waiter find it. A good many 
people are like the man who went into Newburyport, Mass., with a 
turkey, which he sold to a hotel keeper for a dollar, and remarked to 
the landlord that he would probably take dinner with him before 
he returned home. He was on hand for dinner, the only guest; the 
turkey was there too, nicely cooked, and when he finished the din- 
ner, nothing but the bones were left. He paid twenty-five cents for 
the dinner, had eaten a nice turkey, a royal dinner, and had seventy- 



170 KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 

five cents to carry home. This is a fair sample of a class of men 
who expect to get a great deal for nothing. 

If no one advertised, it would be the very best reason why you 
should, and as long as some do advertise, it is the best of all reasons 
why you must, or be left behind. People used to ride in lumbering 
stage-coaches, or travel with their own conveyances to market to 
buy their goods. They do not do it now, not even the old fogies. 
Goods used to be transported by ox teams, but now express trains 
are too slow. A good newspaper carries your card, your advertise- 
ment, into thousands of homes to be read by 10,000 or 100,000 people. 
People talk less than they used to, and read more. They read the 
papers, and take it for granted everybody else does. Every family 
that subscribes to a weekly paper reads it, advertisements and all. 
A gentleman on the cars, or steamboat buys a paper to read what 
interests him. In every first class paper, advertisements are all 
classified. It takes but a moment to find the line of business one 
is interested in knowing about. Advertise your business if you 
wish to do business. If you do not want customers to know what 
you have for sale, by all means keep your name out of the papers. 

RESERVE POWER. 

The successful general does not exhibit the strength of his army 
by a 'grand dress parade in front of the enemy. He deploys skir- 
mishers to draw him out, to learn his position and strength ; and 
not to exhibit his own. When the battle opens the veterans are 
held in reserve, only to be brought into action in case the enemy 
presses too hard, or he has not force sufficient to hold them in 
check, or when a flank movement is attempted. He never employs 
more men than is necessary ; never wastes his ammunition. 

A good debater never shows his strong points first. He holds his 
"big guns" in reserve to the last, using only what fire is necessary 
to checkmate his opponents, only to knock down "the pins" he 
sets up. 

The great secret of success in business is to economize one's re- 
sources in every way possible, expending only where and when 
absolutely necessary. The expending of money lavishly without 
getting an equivalent, is useless, and hinders the early accomplish- 
ment of the object sought. Always keep a good reserve on hand. 



KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 171 

Don't waste your ammunition. You have none to waste. Don't 
fire your gun for the noise, the report. Many a general has won a 
victory by resolutely sticking by the " quaker guns," when he was 
bankrupt in war material and fighting stock. 

Hundreds of business men on the extreme verge of bankruptcy, 
have, by a brave heart and determined will, by keeping right straight 
along, keeping their mouths shut to their real condition, weathered 
the storm, and nobody been hurt. It requires nerve power, will 
power. A nervous, timid man is sure to betray himself. The mo- 
ment the man himself becomes alarmed, and his creditors know it, 
they will be greatly alarmed, and the wheels will have to stop. 
Said Admiral Farragut in a letter to his wife : " As to being pre- 
. pared for defeat, I certainly am not. Any man who is prepared for 
defeat would be half defeated before he commenced. I hope for 
success. Shall do all in my power to secure it, and trust to God for 
the rest." 

Hold your reserve power, all you have, to the last, to the last mo- 
ment. Never show your hand only when absolutely necessary. 
The great railroad magnates do not advertise their plans. They do 
not boast of the millions they have in reserve to buy up some bank- 
. rupt railroad. They never show their heads or hands only as 
receivers of dividends. Reserve power is capital, it is better than 
money in the bank, it is credit on the street current any where. 

Young man keep a good reserve on hand. Add to it every day ; 
it will pay you more than a hundred per cent, interest annually. It 
is the anchor and ballast that holds the ship and keeps it right side 
up through storm and tempest. Your reserve power is your anchor 
and ballast to hold you right side up, that you may outride the 
financial storms and crises that are sure to come sometime, some- 
where, and perhaps when you least expect them. If you have the 
anchor throw it overboard, it will hold, and you will be safe. We 
wish to be clear at this point, as we have been a victim, and paid 
dearly for the information we give you. It has cost us more than 
$10,000 to learn it. It may be worth ten times that amount to you. 
It is worth a hundred dollars to every young man to know this 
fact. It will be worth from $1,000 to $100,000 to some young man 
who has read these pages, and acts according to the spirit of their 
teachings. Young man, hold on. 



LAND SURVEYING IN THE WEST. 

SYSTEM ADOPTED BY THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT. 

The government adopted the present system of surveying the 
public lands in 1802. It is the most complete system that could 
have been devised. It is as easy to understand as the multiplica- 
tion table, and is known as the " Rectangular System." The first 
step in the survey of the lands west of the Mississippi river, was to 
fix upon a base line. This was established at the mouth of the St. 
Francis river, in the State of Arkansas, and runs thence west. Par- 
allel lines run every six miles north of the base lines; the six mile 
spaces are known as u Congressional Townships;" each one is num- 
bered commencing at the base line. The first Township is " No. 
1, north," and so on consecutively. Township No. 65, north, runs 
through Keokuk, Iowa; No. 78, north, takes in Davenport, Iowa 
City, Des Moines, <fec. ; No. 100, north, is the north tier of townships 
of the State of Iowa; No. 117, north, takes in St. Paul, Minnesota. 

A meridian line was also astronomically calculated and estab- 
lished. It intersects the Base Line at the mouth of the Arkansas 
river, and runs north through the State of Missouri, Iowa, and Min- 
nesota. This line is known as the " Fifth Principal Meridian," 
usually written abbreviated thus, u 5th P. M." Washington, D. C, 
is the base for all meridian lines. Parallel to these meridian lines 
other lines are run approximately six miles apart. Each one of these 
six miles spaces is designated as a "Range." They are numbered 
consecutively from the meridian line. If east, the first space would 
be Range No. 1, east. If west, the first space would be Range No. 
1, west. In Iowa, there are but five ranges east of the u 5th P. M.," 
and about 50 west of it. These lines cross the Township lines every 
six miles, and divide the land into squares of six miles on each side r 
making thirty-six square miles to every " Congressional Township." 
Each square mile has 320 rods on each of its four sides, and contains 
640 acres of land, and is called a section, and numbered, commenc- 
ing at the north-east corner of a Township, which is No. 1 ; No. 2 is 
the next one to the left, and so on. No. 6 is at the extreme north-west 
corner; No. 7 is immediately south of No. 6; No. 12 is south of No. 
1 ; No. 13 is south of No. 12 Numbering from right to left, and left 



KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 173 

to right, No. 36 comes at the south-east corner. Every section sur- 
veyed by government is divided up into sixteen equal parts, each 
part being 80 rods square, and containing forty acres. (See diagram 
No. 5, page 175). Each forty acre tract is described separately. 

This plan would be perfection if the earth was flat, instead of 
being spherical. As all meridian lines run north and converge to 
the north pole, it will readily be seen that the nearer they approach 
the pole the closer together will be the lines, and the " square sec- 
tions" would soon be lost and out of square, before many townships 
were surveyed off. To overcome this difficulty new base lines are 
run, and are called " correction lines," and from these new lines 
work commences again on the "square," precisely the same as it 
did at the principal base line in Arkansas. Sometimes in making 
these correction lines a section contains less than 640 acres ; or it 
may contain more. In either case these sections are classed as 
" fractional sections." 

It is of the utmost importance to owners of real estate to know 
whether they have good title to their lands, and above all to know 
whether they are located where they suppose them to be. We have 
seen so many mistakes, and so many disappointed land-owners, 
that we have inserted diagrams (see pages 175 and 176) showing 
how lands are described, that each one can for himself draw a 
correct plat of his lands. Unless one can do this, he never will 
know whether his lands are correctly assessed, or whether he pays 
taxes on his own land, or somebody's else. Assessors are careless, 
and often ignorant of their duties, poor scholars and miserable 
writers. Auditors and their clerks make mistakes. The tax re- 
ceiver cannot correct errors, unless the tax-payer is able to point them 
out, and then require a new and correct description to be made in his 
assessment. The tax-payer must not pay on an erroneous description, 
as some do, thinking it will be " all right" if he has paid anything 
once a year. The slightest error in an assessment may subject the 
owner to absolute loss of his land. To be safe he must know when 
he buys a tract, its exact location, and be able to locate it upon a 
sectional map. If he knows how to do that, no one can deceive 
him as to where the land lies. If he understands the system of land 
surveying he can in one minute fix the exact position of his land. 
If he does not, he will make a first class dupe for some land swind- 



174 KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 

ler. A swindler will say that the tract he desires to sell lies just 
outside of Des Moines, the capital of Iowa, or in the suburbs of St 
Louis, Missouri, or St. Paul, Minnesota ; or wherever he may think 
he can inveigle a customer to think he wants to purchase land. 
It is always close up to some very important city or town, where all 
the great railways of the country will form a junction; while the 
deed you buy may locate your purchase hundreds of miles away 
from human habitation. 

A few months ago a lot of swindlers formed a company to sell out 
" North Denver, Colorado," at $1 per lot. The lots were forty miles 
from Denver in the sand hills, and utterly worthless. Thousands 
were taken in, and a million would probably have been, had not the 
post-office department cut short the game of the sharpers, by gob- 
bling up all their letters, and returning the money enclosed to the 
senders. A mistake in a description will often invalidate the title 
to land that the grantor honestly intends to convey. A mistake in 
the number of the Range or Township, will make six miles differ- 
ence in the supposed location of the tract. It may make fifty or a 
hundred miles. A mistake in the number of the section, or part of 
a section is equally unfortunate for the buyer. We have known 
instances where men have lost their farms by a simple clerical error 
in the drawing of the deed, by inserting east for west, or south for 
north. A man may pay taxes for twenty years on a wrong descrip- 
tion, and lose his land in the meantime, by not knowing of the 
error, the piece he should have paid on having been sold for taxes, 
and after fwz years it has become past redemption. 



EXPLANATION OF DIAGRAMS. 

Diagram No. 1 represents a square section, containing 640 acres. Each side 
measures 320 rods. 

Nos. 2 and 3 represent sections divided in halves, east and west, and north 
and south. 

No. 4 a section cut into quarters of 160 acres each ; each quarter is 160 rods square. 

No. 5 shows a section divided into sixteen parts, which is the completed survey 
by the United States Government. 

Nos. 6, 7 and 8 show the various sub-divisions that are often made in sections; 
42, 55, 58 and 61 being ten acre tracts, and 43, 56, 57 and 60 thirty acre tracts. 

With these diagrams and a sectional map, no one need be mistaken as to the 
location of any tract of land he may be interested in. 



KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY. 



175 



DIAGRAMS OF SECTIONS, SHOWING SUB-DIVISIONS. 
No. 1. No. 2. 





No. 3. 



No. 4. 



4 5 



6 


7 


8 


9 



No. 5. 



10 


11 


12 


13 


14 


15 


16 


17 


18 


19 


20 


21 


22 


23 


24 


25 





No 


6. 




26 


27 


28 


29 


30 


31 


32 


33 



176 



KENT'S NEW COMMENTARY 

DIAGRAMS — CONTINUED. 



No. 7. 



34 


35 


30 


37 


38 


39 


40 


41 



No. 8. 



42 



43 









47 


48 


49 


44 


45 


46 
















51 


52 


53 



50 



62 



63 



ABBREVIATED DESCRIPTIONS OP SECTIONAL SUB-DIVISIONS. 



N, north; S, south; E, east; W, west. 



1 — Whole Section. 

2-NH- 

3— sh. 

5— w/ % . 

6— NWi£. 

7— NE^. 

8— SW3^. 

9— SE^. 

10— NWj^ NW3^. 
11— KEi^ NWM- 
12— NW34 NE^. 
13— KE^ NEJ£. 
14— SW^ ^"W^. 
15— SE3^ NWM- 
16— SWi£ NE3^. 
17— SE3^ NEJ£. 
18— NW^ SWA£. 
19— NE^ SW^. 
20— JSTWM SE^. 
21— NE^ SEJ£. 



22— SW^ SWM- 
23-SE34 SWJ4. 
24— SW3^ SEJ^. 
25— SE}4 SEi^. 
26— W^ NWM- 
27— EH NW3^. 
28— WH NE^. 
29— EH NE^. 
30— W^ SW3^. 
31— EH SW^. 
32— W^ SE3^. 
33— E^ SE^. 
34— NH WN%. 
35— NH NE3^. 
36— SH NW3^. 
37— SH NE^. 
38— NH SWM- 
39— NH SE^. 
40— SH SW^. 
41— SH SE^. 
42— NWM NW3^ 
NW^. 



43— S 30 W^ WH NWM. 
44— EH WH NWM- 
45— W^ EH NWM- 
46-EH E^ NWM- 
47— WH NW3^ NE^. 
48— EH NWJ4 NE^. 
49— WH NE3^ NE^. 
50— EH NE34 NE3^. 
51— WH SWM NE^. 
52— EH SW3^ NE^. 
53— WH SE3^ NE^. 
54— EH SE3^ NEJ^. 
55_^WM NW3^ SW^. 
56— E 30 NH NH SW^. 
57— W 30 SH ^H SW3^. 
58— SE^ NE>4 SWM- 
59-NH sh SWM- 
60— W 30 sh sh sw^. 
61— SE^ SE^ SW^. 
62— WH SE^. 
63— EH SE^. 



J I I 



